Unknown Depth

Greetings and salutations once more, fair followers!

Its been a while since I’ve updated you on the Tanzanian Education Project blog. If you’re unaware, we’re currently writing weekly updates on two sites; the TEP blog and a blog for Winona360 (www.winona360.com) are serving as bases for illuminating the outside world to the exciting adventures happening in Bunju A, Tanzania. The past two weeks I (Eileen) have been writing for Winona360, as my compositions were more secular and viscerally based than our typical TEP blogs, which are to keep donors and supporters abreast of the developments of projects at Fanaka and our other partner schools.

However, I’m back, and we’ve had yet another eventful week. Today is Good Friday, and so the students at Fanaka have been sent home for Easter Holiday, which includes today, this weekend, Easter Monday, and the following Tuesday, which is Union Day and a national holiday. Its another long break, and I’m a bit peeved that I’m losing out almost an entire week of lessons, but then again, it gives us more time to work on more administrative tasks in the interim. (Babu says the Tanzanian government is just going to keep adding public holidays so that no one ever works.)

Its continued to be rainy and cool, and of course I am totally digging the weather, but everyone at home seems to be getting colds and the flu and walking around huddled under down jackets. “This condition is not good,” Jasintha told me from under her heavy jacket, sniffling “It is too cold.” Its about 60 degrees Fahrenheit. It still gets hot enough for one to break a sweat by the middle of most days, but there were a couple days this past week where the rain did not let up all day. This has been good for our Hydrate 2 Educate Project, as the current water tanks are consistently full to the brim. However, we have yet to install the pump in the large cement tank, so there is a risk of backup in the pipes and overflow.

I have been conducting an informal survey in the area of other rainwater catch systems, and would like to compare the systems set up at other schools near Bunju. It seems that some schools (like Olof Orphanage) have two tanks, usually in the range of 150,000 liters to 300,000 liters. This, in addition to utilizing some drip wells for washing clothes seems to be enough to last a boarding school the whole year- even through the dry season. Olof has all boarding students, about 120 right now, compared to Fanaka’s about 70-80 boarding students. However, despite the abundance of water right now, it is quickly becoming clear based on my observations and some other readings I’ve found (including a survey of rainwater catch systems in Kenya) that the current tanks at Fanaka will not last the school through the entire year. The goal of H2E is to supply the school with enough water to last through the dry season (from about September to January), and at this point, though the new tanks will help lessen Fanaka’s dependence on water pumped from town, it will not be able to operate completely independent of those systems. Fanaka needs a 150,000-200,000 liter tank on the premises to more safely ensure that it collects enough water to satisfy the hygienic and nutritional needs of its students. It is imperative that the Tanzanian Education Project continue to work towards the funding of building another tank and utilizing the large roof space/catch surface available from the school room buildings.

As far as other projects are going, we are taking the next step in our “Raising a Future” project! The chicken coop here at Babu’s house has been cleaned and sterilized, and yesterday morning Babu placed a call to Interchick, the chicken-supply company, for an order of 300 chicks. We should be able to pick up the chicks in about two weeks, and that first batch of “broilers” (chickens sold for meat, as opposed to eggs) should be ready for sale after another five weeks. Barring any unexpected onset of some sort of fatal disease, there should be about a 200,000/= profit (in Tanzanian shillings, about $150 USD) on each batch of chickens, after expenses. This means that if we are able to continue the program, the chickens will pay for themselves every month, with additional revenue available for the school. We have not yet integrated a program for incorporating the chicken project into Fanaka’s curriculum, but this will come in time, and after the program has proved to be self-sustainable.

Yesterday we were able to pay another visit to Olof Palme Bethsaida Girls Secondary School and Orphanage, thanks to our friend and partner of African Children’s Haven, Dr. Aichi Kitaly. The trek was a bit arduous on the way to Olof, as due to the rains we were advised against using the “bush road” we normally take through Bunju B and up to Mbezi. This meant that we had to go south into Dar es Salaam, connect with Morogoro Road, and take that back north and west until we reached another dirt road. This road led us up into the bush from the north. After much bumping and rattling, we finally arrived at Olof. Aichi talked with some of the girls and we were able to better survey the new library, which is well built and aesthetically pleasing. It seems the books are well-organized and utilized. Visiting with the girls was nice, and we shared some sodas and cookies with them before heading back out into the wilderness (sort of).

On the way back, Aichi, in the interest of time, and because the morning had been dry, decided we should brave the shorter bush road back to Bunju. We were going on alright until we came to a low, sharp curve in the road which was washed out and submerged in water of an unknown depth. Aichi and I tried to determine the depth with sticks (as she didn’t want to get her car stuck, which would take even more time than turning around and taking the tarmac road home). We couldn’t figure out if the curve was navigable with sticks, so Aichi resolutely declared she would walk through the puddle... even though she was wearing dress shoes and a suit. Kristina and I protested, and Kristina volunteered to brave the puddle.

It turned out to be merely about ten inches of water, and the bottom was not too mucky, so we made it through with great success, and back home without incident. And, as usual, despite obstacles and braving the unknown, we arrived home in time for tea. I hope all is well at home, please keep supporting the TEP and our projects and feel free to contact we volunteers with any questions about how projects are working here if you want more details. ‘Til next week!