Operation Tech Start

Greetings OTS blog readers, Steve here.

I should kick this post off by wishing Peter a very Happy Birthday, or as they say in Kiswahili, ‘Furaha siku ya kuzaliwa.’

Steve instructing farmers on filling out the survey in Usunga

The last 2 weeks have indeed been eventful, and possibly some of the busiest days yet. Late last week Holly had a chance to sit down with the District Commissioner of Tabora, which was great since he is likely to be one of the busiest people in the region. After briefing him on what we are up to at OTS, she provided him with a list of questions, mostly local growth related indicators. This information is substantial to the OTS research sphere, and having such up to date figures will play a crucial role in future planning and development for the organization. The DC has promised to get back to us soon with the questionnaire.

Peter has been considerably busy constructing the communication survey for the farmers over the last 2 weeks. We are all happy to say that his efforts have most definitely paid off as we were able to give it a trial run late last week with favourable results. After a few tweaks, we started to plan the next steps by attending a Leaf Technician meeting last Saturday morning. As Holly mentioned earlier, the Leaf Technicians (LT’s) are trained staffed who work under the ATTT umbrella. They work tirelessly travelling around their assigned regions, meeting with farmers, and conducting training sessions that encourage proper farming practices. In a nutshell, our goal with the communication survey is to work with the LT’s to administer the study, and gather the inputs we need to obtain a better scope of what communication is occurring, and how it might be improved. Thus, we attended the LT meeting to build a rapport with the LT’s, and give them a heads up on what we plan to do.

As of today, Peter and I have now hit 4 major areas in Sikonge, which is located about 2 hours south of Tabora. Luckily our driver was Sebastian Loeb (famous rally car driver) and managed to get us there in about an hour and a half. Ok so he wasn’t really Sebastian Loeb, although he would definitely give him a run for his money at the World Rally Driver’s Championship.

Peter explaining the content of the survey to one of the farmers.

Upon arriving in Sikonge on Monday we met with Antony, the Agronomy Supervisor for the region, Charles (an Area Manager), and Joseph (the Leaf Technician). I have to say that their combined efforts made everything go quite smoothly. We started off the day by meeting with various Government and Town officials for the Sikonge region, simply to say hello and let them know what our research entails. After that, we set out to begin the first training session. Basically what happens here is the LT will go out into the field and round up all the farmers in a given area, and conduct his training session on site. Our first group had a great turn out, with more than 25 farmers. Following Joseph’s seminar, Antony was kind enough to translate a short greeting and introduction on behalf of Peter and myself, and we handed out the surveys.

We will be visiting several regions throughout Tabora over the next few weeks to reach as many farmers as possible. Once we have obtained an adequate sample size for our results, we can begin crunching the numbers. This is no doubt an important time for OTS, and the information we extract from these surveys will be critical to the next phases.

Today, we took some time off from our travels around Tabora region, and decided to make some progress on the education front. This started with a short meeting with the Tanzania Public Service College located right in Tabora. I think I speak for all three of us when I say that we were shocked, and more than a little impressed by what we saw. Especially in light of all the other institutions who have struggled with the apparent security risks tied to obtaining computers. The college currently has 1 fully operational computer lab with more than 30 computers, and another lab that they were just setting up (with another 30). It was also interesting to see that all of the hardware and software was top of the line, from shiny LCD monitors to the most recent licences for the Adobe Creative Suite. The only thing more impressive than the labs themselves were the programs they offered in IT. The college offers both diplomas and certificates in a wide range of programs which teach anything from desktop publishing, to database management and network analysis. Overall, it was a lot of fun meeting with the college teachers and admins today, and we are looking forward to our next visit.

Our next stop was yet another visit to St. Francis, which is always a joy. Today we shadowed a computer class taught by a volunteer named Franzi. We had met with her earlier to see first hand what St. Francis is doing in terms of computer education, and had also given Franzi a copy of our working curriculum and the GCompris software package. It was great to see it in action today, as the children learned the basics of clicking the mouse. The children were having a blast playing with the various games and activities GCompris has to offer, and I am eager to see how their skills develop over time. We will likely be making another trip to the school in the near future, so more on that later.

That’s pretty much all for now. Peter and I will be getting up bright and early tomorrow to travel to Ulyankulu to continue working with the farmers and conducting surveys. So there will be lots to report on in the coming weeks. I should also mention Peter and I shall be making attempt number 2 at a trip to Igombe Dam this Sunday, as our efforts last weekend were met with failure – though for reasons that were entirely not our fault :). So hopefully we will have some pretty pictures to post of our journeys next week.

All the best

Steve

Volunteers come and go. The last months it have been Adil and Jordan who worked with Holly in starting and running Operation Tech Start and laying the foundation for a successful project in Tabora. Although we (Stephen and Peter, the newbies) haven’t been here for very long, we can see that a lot of work has already been done. And it is good to know that there are people out there that are willing to contribute to a better world by embracing that world and showing the willingness to actually do something. So Adil and Jordan, thank you so much for paving the way and pushing us in the right direction!

The KIU classroom

Our volunteering with OTS started with one week of intensive Swahili classes in Dar Es Salaam together with Karly (a volunteer with Volunteer Africa in Tabora). The classes organized by KIU were just amazing! There is only so much you can pick up in just 5 days, especially since Swahili is nothing like any of the other languages that we spoke, but we got the basics down and we can at least tell the cab driver where to go: “moja kwa moja” (straight) and ask the guy in the “duka” (shop) for “mkate na maji” (bread and water). The language course is combined with some insightful culture classes as well, like visiting the bustling Kariakoo market in Dar and a short class on do’s (extensively! greet someone) and do not’s (always good to know you shouldn’t hang your underwear in plain sight if you want to be considered an exhibitionist).

After we finished the course it was finally time to head out to Tabora. And why do it the easy way if there is Tanzanian Central Rail. On paper a mere 24 hour ride in the comfort of a first class, two person cabin with sink and sleeping facilities which takes you straight through Tanzania’s scenic landscape. On paper it doesn’t sound bad at all when you read it like that, does it? But when the guy from KIU that dropped us of at the train station started showing us how to bar our window and the cockroaches shot into the various cracks in the walls, we seriously wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. Fortunately it was not all that bad and we certainly had an interesting train ride that was only delayed by 6 hours. For no apparent reason we had travelled back in the direction of Dar during the night for some time. When we got to Tabora we were welcomed by Nik, our housemate for two weeks. Volunteers come and go and Nik is by now back in the US enjoying his first courses at Columbia.

Leaving the trainstation in Dar Es Salaam

As for the work, we basically started working where Adil and Jordan had left of. Loads of thanks to Adil for the documentation he left us which definitely pushed us in the right direction. Nonetheless it always takes some time to get up to speed, get used to the terminology and just get a feeling for the matter. But we have the feeling that we’re getting the hang of things and we’re already over our heads in work. We are working towards finishing up the first phase of the project (getting a good understanding of the environment) and preparing for the second phase. Especially the second phase will be an exciting one where we will go out and meet with the farmers to learn their information and communication problems and desires. At the same time we are expanding the existing curriculum for teaching basic computer skills using Edubuntu and Gcompris. Edubuntu is a linux OS based on Ubuntu and Gcompris is an interesting package that comes with it for teaching primary school kids basic computer skills (amongst others).

Outside the office at Alliance One

As you can read there is more than enough work to keep us busy. And then we’ve been exploring Tabora’s social scene as well. But you’ll have to come back for a report on that since it’s still under investigation. In mean time just have a look at the ever expanding page of Tabora on Wikipedia. Enjoy!

Tutaonana (We’ll see eachother!)

Peter

Mambo Rafikis

I’ll be honest in admitting that I’ve been delaying writing this blog entry primarily because it will be my final one since Phase 1 of our project is nearly complete and it’s time for me to return home. It’s not going to be easy to pull away from the project or life here in Tabora but I’m happy that Jordan and I will be leaving the reigns in the hands of two very awesome new volunteers – Stephen and Peter (expect some posts from them soon).

The last week has been a whirlwind of activities and engagements and while I’m hesitant to pick a favorite to talk about, I have two good stories to share. The first is regarding the Nane Nane festivities which I wrote about in the last entry. As I mentioned, Nane Nane is the national farmer’s holiday and given that Tanzania has an agricultural-based economy, the celebrations were grand. A group of us went to the local fair grounds where thousands of people attended to sample an eclectic array of food, be entertained with various cultural shows and become educated on successful farming practices. There were booths showing the proper techniques to raising cattle, how to deal with crop diseases and simply what tools to use to maximize one’s crop (be it tobacco, maze, etc). In my eyes, I could see a place for OTS at the fair in the future, similarly educating people on how to use ICT tools to improve their standard of living. Although I’ll admit that we’ll have a lot of work to do as the booths that we saw were clearly the product of many people’s hard efforts. I think in this situation, pictures speak louder than words so below is a sample of shots from the day:

The second thing I wanted to talk about is outside of the scope of the project, but I feel like it’s a story worth sharing. Lying in bed around 12 am last Friday, I heard what has become a familiar Friday night hum which I had suspected was emanating from a nearby church. Generally, you get used to the daily sounds of Tabora like roosters and rap music but there was definitely an intoxicating aspect to the harmony so I got up and told the group that I was going ‘to follow the music’.

Locating the church wasn’t difficult and much to my surprise, one of the choir teachers came out and invited us in. The moment of entry was surreal. The small church – about 100 x 270 feet – was booming with the voices of the teacher who was to the left of us and the 20 strong choir to our right. It honestly felt like a wave of sound had entered my head. We grabbed some seats and were invited by our new friend to stay the night with the choir. We learnt that the only time they had to rehearse was Friday through the night and here we are, 1 am at this point, and just glued to our seats embracing the moment. We ended up staying for about two hours but leaving was not an easy task. No one made us feel uncomfortable or uneasy. They certainly did what they could to make us feel welcome and we were even asked to address the group during a break. Talking in Swahili, I wasn’t able to come up with too much other than some key greetings but it was nevertheless a good moment. Akin to many of our other experiences here, the group was exceptionally courteous and even clapped a couple of times as if to say that they were honored by our attendance even though it was exactly the other way around. For those who will be joining OTS, I highly suggest you too follow the music – it’s worth it in ways you don’t even know yet.

I suppose that’s a pretty good way of summing up my experience here in Tabora with OTS. As colloquial as it sounds, your experiences will also always be as good as you make it. So whether it is here in Tabora or somewhere else, I hope you embrace your environment and never shy away from something different and unfamiliar (of course, unless it seems dangerous). You’ll find, as I found, that while things might seem unique on the outside, on the inside we all want and enjoy the same things. It’s perhaps this fact that makes our project most compelling to me: we are here to work within the environment, not against or on top of it. This requires embracing the way of life and the people here and undoubtedly this produces an experience unlike any other. At least, this is how I feel when thinking retrospectively, but I guess you’ll just have to find out or yourself.

Adil

Despite the complications with taking the bus to travel around the country, we are more than game to continue voyaging along the bumpy roads for our work. Thus, it was fairly surprising when we were invited to an Alliance One training seminar in Urambo and were told that we would be flying there! The reason for flying is simple; less time spent travelling means more time in the communities. So off we went to Urambo to see Chris and Alfa (two Alliance One staffers) put on presentations for two primary societies on how to improve their farming practices.

The experience was enlightening for a plethora of reasons. For example, it was great to see how many members of the community were able to attend – a clear sign that help is well received. It was, however, particularly troublesome to get things started because the buildings which we had the presentations in, did not have electricity and used natural light through thin spots on the ceiling for lighting. Normally this isn’t an issue but in this case it made seeing the PowerPoint presentation extremely difficult. Eventually, some brave souls shimmied up the wall and threw tarps over the top and as I sat there I couldn’t help but be amazed at how we take the simplest things for granted. In this case, it was a dark room.

Our main reason for attending was to simply see how things go down since our plan is to attend many more of these sessions (Alliance travels to every community) in the near future and survey the attendees on their knowledge and comfort level with ICTs. This primary research will be instrumental in helping us determine what culturally-sensitive recommendations we can make in terms of ICT integration. Furthermore, attending these seminars will provide us with a great opportunity to get people enthused for ICTs. It’s hardly profound to say that getting people ICTs is one thing but in no way ensures that they will adopt them, so slowly increasing enthusiasm is paramount to our plans.

One thing that I haven’t mentioned yet is that a group of us volunteers have been taking Swahili classes twice a week which have been a great help when communicating with people here. In addition, the classes provided us with a great contact – our Mwalimu (teacher) – that brought us to his school to meet with the headmaster last week. You see, over here you simply cannot arrange a meeting with someone without a proper introduction from an intermediate source. So Christansos brought us to his school – Kazima Secondary – and we had a great conversation with them about their computer education ideas and plans. As it turns out, they haven’t provided classes yet and their one computer was recently stolen. Accordingly, the school is beefing up in security and it certainly seems that the interest is there to offer computer education in the near future.

This Friday is one of the largest national holidays, Nane Nane and its purpose is specifically to provide a day of rest and celebration for farmers. I’m not exactly sure of all the activities happening but I do know that we will be going to the equivalent of some ‘fairgrounds’ to see various farming outfits provide exhibits and examples of their operations. As always, I’ll be sure to report back with details.

Adil

Mambo Vipi! We are currently enjoying one of our most productive weeks since we started which is more so a consequence of things falling into place rather than an increase in work ethic (party line: because we are always working hard). There is a saying we have here – This is Africa (TIA) – which broadly explains how things just work differently (often slower and less efficient) here than we are used to. So arranging meetings, for example, can sometimes take weeks to establish stalling us on the respective frontiers of our work. BUT, this week we have been busy between seeing different schools, meeting community and business leaders.

The two schools that we visited – St. Francis and Westlands Prep – are by definition private schools in Tabora Town and are equally impressive in their facilities and curriculum. The reason for visiting schools in the area is to get a full understanding of the computer education, or lack thereof, that is being provided. At St Francis, we were excited to find them developing their first computer lab with the hopes that classes would be provided in the extremely near future. It was interesting to see that their lab had some of the most sophisticated forms of security that we’ve encountered here in Tabora. Our experience at Westlands explained why this was needed. Westlands provided computer classes a few years ago but their ‘lab’ was broken into, their guard severely beaten and the computers were all stolen. The unfortunate incident has left the school fearful of buying new computers thus bringing another interesting facet to the computer dilemma here. Hopefully we can help both schools with their respective situations by bringing or expanding the computer education being offered. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Another example of all the progress that we’re having is our recent meeting with the Chief of Tanesco for the Tabora region. Tanesco is the sole energy provider for all of Tanzania so we were interested in learning about the levels of accessibly of energy as this directly relates to the question of how and if we can get people using different forms of technology. More importantly, access to electricity is a large standard of life indicator so we were curious to see if there were ways that we can possibly help with the accessibility. Truthfully, we were blown away with the initiatives and ambition of the company and the government (Tanesco is owned by the Tanzanian government) to get electricity in the hands of every Tanzanian. In other words, they don’t seem to need our help on this front that much! But this is a good thing as we can stay focused on identifying electricity usage levels for varying technologies to help determine the feasibility of their implementation. It would be futile, after all, tirelessly working to deliver computers to communities who are unable to power them.

Beyond work, life is great in Tabora. With extra space in our volunteer house we thought it would be a good idea to open our doors to other volunteers seeking space. This came at a convenient time as Tabora is experiencing an increase in its volunteer population primarily because of the Millennium project. Consequently, Emily and Nik, both students from Columbia University have joined our ever increasing family making for all round good times. It really seems between our Millennium and HAPO friends, our evening dinners (a daily activity) are getting bigger and more fun. Best of all, similar to our experience in Dar (Blog 2), there is a wonderful sense of purpose and dialogue that exists among us that ultimately broadens each of our individual experiences. Of course, I can’t help but mention that our nightly rendezvous with the canceled-but-still-hilarious-sitcom Arrested Development ensures that every night is a good night.

All right, we’re off to another batch of meetings now. First we’re meeting with TTCL, the primary internet provider in the area and then with Celtel who is one of the two big mobile phone providers in the country. I’m sure we’ll be updating you soon on how the two go.

Salama, Adil.

p.s.Yesterday we all thought it would be good to get tested for malaria and I’m happy to report that Holly, Lauren (a volunteer from another organization who came with us) and I were all parasite free. Just in case you were worried…