A Chance to be a Tourist.

It has been a very eventful week indeed! Last friday we made a trip to Posta and found out that yet again the shipping container’s arrival is going to be delayed. Now the new scheduled time is for this coming Monday. The reason that it is still being delayed is because of the government. The container is in the port in Dar, however the shipping company is waiting for the government to issue a check for the tax exemptions and the government is sitting on the check. They are waiting to issue the check is because everyday they stall is another day we have to pay port storage fees which amount to about 40 USD a day! Ughhh.

Basically corruption is going on here and there is nothing we can do. Every trip to Posta costs a lot of money for gas so we tried to hassle them as many times as we could but now it is in the government’s hands. However, we hope to only have to pay about 500 USD for extra port charges as of right now. As many of you faithful readers have learned, what they say can be very different than what will actually happen.

Needless to say, Cassie, Eileen, and myself have become extremely frustrated and it is really wearing down on us. We are trying to keep our chins up and keep it moving on other issues so we have been burying ourselves in work this week. We typed and proofread/fixed/printed/reprinted 15 separate documents for Fanaka alone along with the school time table which is by far the hardest to figure out!

We also did some more budgeting on the shop project and met with a couple of local stores for the equipment. We talked prices, specs, and expenses with the experts, so we hope to make some read head-way on that issue as soon as we get into the swing of things at school.

The new semester (or term as they say) starts this monday as well so it will be chaos if that is the day the sea container actually arrives. Don’t fret, we are prepared! We bought new lesson and teacher books for ourselves, and held a staff meeting to propose all the new reform systems we are implementing in the school so we are excited to start.

Some examples of the reform include shortening the time table, implementing an entirely new discipline system, changing the way the teachers receive their wages, holding teachers accountable for their bad behavior, and getting rid of some extra expenses that Fanaka had. By far this has been the most time consuming and challenging thing for us. We have really worked hard to get everything written up for them to see and made sure that all the rules were fair and easy to follow. We are crossing our fingers that all of it takes and they are on board because if they are we can really start to make this school function correctly and better than it ever has before. Cross your fingers everyone!

Another interesting thing we did this week was we met and spent an afternoon with a contact who knows everything there is to know about chickens and how to raise them. We had been playing with the idea of the students and staff at Fanaka raising chickens to sell in the market so it was great to meet someone who had all the information. He gave us some great resources as far as literature and know-how went, as well as offered his advice on where we could place the chicken coops and how many we should start with, what the prices should be, who to buy chicks from, and offered to help in any other way we needed. I actually was insanely interested so I read the literature he gave us back and forth 3 times and still was craving more! Who knew raising chickens could be so fascinating! (I swear I am not joking people, I love to learn!)

Yet another interesting thing about this week is that we have two new volunteers staying at Bibi and Babu’s home with us. I went to their hotel and picked them up on Wednesday morning, showed them around a little bit, and we arrived at the house around lunch time. Liz and Miranda are from Houston, Texas and work at a high school there. Since they worked at an inter-city school we feel like they can provide valuable insights on how to deal with some of the issues we have at Fanaka such as getting the students to behave and many other things. They are friends of Cassie’s contact Ed with the organization Africa Children’s Haven and he sent them to get some footage and information from Olof orphanage. Since Ed knows Cassie and knew we were here during the same time they got arranged to stay at Bibi and Babu’s with us. They will be here for about 3 weeks and while they do have to go to Olof a lot they also want to help with Fanaka so that’s very good.

Some not so good news is that Bibi’s heath is troubling her. She has had two trips to the hospital in the last week and everyone in the house is worried about her of course. This is causing a lot of work to fall on Babu’s shoulders and it is making things hard around the house both emotionally and as far as getting work done goes. Cassie, Eileen and I are finding it hard to not worry so that’s another reason we are burying ourselves in work. Despite all this, we have every reason to hope that she will get better soon. Please pray for her and our family here if you can.

Much to our luck we got a chance on Saturday to hangout and just be regular tourists! Bilo and Eve (Bibi’s son and his wife) took us to the ocean. We paid a hotel a few bucks to use their beach front, had lunch, swam, and just relaxed for half of the day. I can’t speak for the other girls but a few hours to let my body (and mostly my mind) relax was way overdue. I sat on a beach chair and just watched the waves with warm sand in between my toes and even caught a little tan. It was good for the soul and without that 5 hours at the beach I don’t know if I would have made it through the week.

That’s about all there is to say about this week guys. Overall, we made a lot of progress on things but it was definitely the busiest and most stressful week we have had here. I am sure that next week will be twice as busy and twice as stressful with the new semester and hopefully the sea container, but we are ready to go. I am really excited to see some serious changes at the school and make progress on the shop project!

Wish us luck! Thanks again for reading!

Bunju A to Bunju B

Dear friends, family, and faithful followers,

I hope this newest blog update finds everyone well and happy. We have had another eventful week here in Bunju A, Tanzania, and I am anxious to tell you about it.

Since we last met one another in the magical world of the internets, we have visited some friends, done much administrative work, conducted and taught classes and made some amazing connections.

On Friday morning, we were finally able to visit Olof Bethsaida Secondary School and Orphanage, thanks to the generosity of our friend Aichi. Aichi picked us up on the road in Bunju A, and drove further north through Bunju B and into the country. The scenery was beautiful; it is exactly what one expects to see when one pictures “Africa”. There were incredible rolling hills, lush greens, red roads, and a cool misty fog lying everywhere. We climbed and descended many hills, finally entering a game reserve (where I had hoped to see some monkeys, but alas, no luck this time) and eventually made it to Olof.

Olof has an incredibly beautiful campus, and I was so happy to finally get to see the third school being helped by the Tanzanian Education Project. Cassie had warned me that I would be hooked on Olof as soon as I arrived there, but I was not prepared for how wonderful and place and how deserving the students would be. From the entrance, the campus slopes down into a valley, with a few buildings for dormitories, classrooms, administrative buildings, and housing for volunteers. That day, it was cool and drizzling, and we could see some volunteers working hard on constructing a new library for the school. The administrators were absolutely delighted when we told them we would be bringing some books and the girls would be able to utilize their library right away.

Our friend Aichi, who had escorted us to Olof, was interviewing five candidates for a mentorship program, aimed at helping girls who are interested in the sciences. Before our visit, five of the top girls in the sciences had been selected, and that day Aichi was interviewing them in order to select two who would have the opportunity to visit Dar es Salaam and be paired up with a prominent female scientist and learn about her profession. Teresa and I got to sit in on the interviews while Cassie went over some administrative details with MamaChristina, one of the matrons of the school. It was difficult to select just two girls out of the five candidates, as all seemed incredibly intelligent and motivated, but after each delivered a speech about what they would like to become after university, we selected Winnifred and Prisca (hopefully, we will have photos up for you soon!). Both girls were very excited and flattered and are now looking forward to their trip, which they should be making tomorrow!

After we got a tour of the campus, which is very green and decorated with beautiful gardens, we climbed back into Aichi’s car and headed home. When we arrived back in Bunju A, Teresa said she was feeling ill, so we went back to Bibi and Babu’s immediately so she could rest. Later in the day, as we prepared to go visit our friends Billo and Eve (Bibi and Babu’s son and daughter-in-law), we managed to convince Teresa that she should get tested for malaria on the way there, as she had been feeling ill all week. Albert took us to a clinic on the way to Makumbusho (where Billo lives, just outside of Dar es Salaam), and despite our language barrier, he was incredibly helpful as always. Teresa was seen by a doctor right away, tested, and we discovered that she did in fact have malaria. She got the necessary medicine, and decided that she would stay at home for the weekend instead of staying at Billo’s.

DO NOT WORRY THOUGH, TERESA HAS FINISHED HER ROUND OF ANTIBIOTICS AND IS IN TIP-TOP SHAPE!

While T recuperated under the careful eye of Bibi at home, Cassie and I had an enjoyable time with Eve and Billo. They are a wonderful, welcoming couple, and it was so nice to be able to spend the weekend with another part of the Kahatano family. We saw a show with ethnic dancing and it was fantastic! I really enjoyed being a bit of a tourist for the weekend. On Sunday, Billo and Eve drove us back home and spent the day in Bunju A, visiting and checking in on Bibi and Babu.

This week, we are continuing to try and work out the issues of the timetable for Fanaka, as we are getting rid of one period at the end of the day, so we must rearrange teaching loads and when certain classes meet, all within the strictures and requirements of the Tanzanian government. This is incredibly difficult and very trying, but we are almost finished and will have the new timetable solidified before regular classes begin again on July 5th. The reasoning behind shortening the school day is that so many students do not bring lunch, nor can they afford to buy lunch. So students go without eating until their lunch period (7:40am to 2:30pm), and then have two more classes after the lunch period, making the school day last until 4:30pm. Even for those students who can afford lunch, they are tired and unable to function in their afternoon classes. Right now, since the school is so under budget, we cannot afford to feed those students who are going hungry, so our only solution, really, is to make the school day a little shorter.

In addition to revamping the timetable, we have drawn up several proposals including a proposal for a study hall period (as when students do not have class, they run rampant on the campus, and then are difficult to corral for their next class, which disrupts the entire day), a system of positive reinforcements to reward those students who excel in their class and make improvements, new discipline procedures, and a set of guidelines for teacher conduct. Hopefully, these new administrative proposals will help the school run more smoothly in the future and eliminate issues of tardiness on both the parts of teachers and students. Our headmistress, Matilda, is working incredibly hard, taking on these new proposals, even though she is trying to finish up all of the grading from last examinations, and we are especially grateful to her. Also this week, Cassie met with Allen, the bursar (head of finances) for Fanaka to discuss some important budget issues.

Also this week at Fanaka, the shelves in the library were finished! They completely cover one wall of the library and look wonderful! I am so eager to get them stocked full of books for the students.

We were also able to see the shop Babu was able to rent out in order to raise revenue for Fanaka. It was really exciting to see some fruits of our fundraising efforts. We have an ambitious goal of getting the shop finished and stocked by mid/late July. Bibi and Babu’s son Billo will be taking part of his holiday out to help get the shop up and running. It is right along the main road coming into Bunju, so hopefully we will get some good business.

The sea container has yet to arrive, but the office in Dar continues to assure us that it will arrive at Fanaka this week. We are all hoping that this will work out, as we begin accruing port fees tomorrow.

In conclusion, we have made some exciting progress, seen some interesting new things and come up against some more hurdles. I am keeping a positive outlook, though sometimes the prospects and magnitude of how much work we must do seems daunting. There is so much work yet to do, so many more funds yet to raise, and of course there is never enough time. However, I am cherishing every minute here, and though working on “Tanzanian time” is sometimes incredibly frustrating for me, I absolutely love being here.

Thanks again to all our friends and family working hard at home. We miss you dearly.

xoxox,

Eileen

Slowly but Surely

Hello again family, friends, supporters and followers,

Here we are one month in and very busy preparing for all current and upcoming projects. Unfortunately, as African Time promises, everything is running very slowly but we are making sufficient progress. The shelves are being built in the library as we speak, the ELA Paint Project will be finalized tomorrow and the ELA School Bus will be up and running by the start of school on July 4^th. As founder of The Tanzanian Education Project it is extremely rewarding to see our donors money morphing into the much needed projects I’ve been yapping about for the past year. Most importantly, I have been able to accurately evaluate the severity of old and new problems. To my dismay the problems with students’ inability to pay for school fees, untrained teachers and a non- existing budget is threatening our schools’ survival. Worst of all, since I was here last year, the hopes to drill for a new well has been crushed as water levels are lower than ever. Since arriving, clean water has been our biggest, unforeseen challenge.

Since the start of the TEP, the focus has always been self-sustaining initiatives in order to empower the school and the students to take care of their problems with their own solutions. It is great to see that we have unconditional support for such projects by our staff, friends and family here in TZ. Although I am personally committed to our mission of self-sustaining projects, it is clear that we need to address some basic concerns like water before we expect these children to utilize their education. The three of us have put together numerous proposals for upcoming projects that unfortunately our budget this time will not cover. We hope to launch the Hydrate to Educate (H2E) project as soon as we arrive back in the USA. Of course we won’t stop there as many existing and new problems still need our attention.

Over the weekend we went to the home of Albert (Fanaka’s and Bibi and Babu’s driver). We are very close with Albert and his family so it was good to see where they live. Over the past few years Albert and Mama Sophie would save about $15 USD a month from their paychecks to build their home brick by brick. After Lena (a previous volunteer) and I left Bunju A we donated money to their building efforts. I learned that with our help they were able to connect to the generator for power. This gives their children Sophie and Donny the ability to study at night. It also better ensures the overall safety of the environment for the family. It feels good to see how a small donation to such a deserving family can make such a positive impact.

This week Teresa and I visited an old student of mine named Allen. I taught him as a Form 3 but due to his inability to pay school fees he had to move to a different school. I was able to contact him and set up a time over holiday to see him. We ate lunch with his family and shared stories about his new school. I have missed him very much as he is a very unique, clever character that made many of my days at Fanaka brighter. Hopefully we will be able to see him again in the next few months.

On Friday we will be visiting Olof Bethsaida Secondary School and Orphanage, the third school the TEP supports. There I will be completing some work for our partner African Children’s’ Haven Girl Science Scholarship Program. It is great to work with such a great program and organization. We are excited to learn from Olof’s successful Garden Project, Chicken Project and the Eye Glass program thanks to the hard work of previous Olof volunteers.

Plans for next week: Finalize budgets and proposals for Garden Lunch Project, Chicken Project and Eye Glass program. We will also be visiting other secondary schools to learn from them and develop more contacts in the education field. Implementing decisions made during our teacher/staff meetings. And hopefully unloading the sea container (new delivery date is set for June 24^th- keep your fingers crossed).

As always thank you for reading and your continued support!

-Cassie