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
