New volunteer, workshops and a beautiful Island...
on Kev in Tanzania (Tanzania), 10/Mar/2010 04:59, 34 days ago
Been a busy 2 weeks, both at work and outside!Wednesday 24th FebruaryThe new VSO volunteer was arriving today. He flew in from Zanzibar (something which VSO do not normally do due to the cost…) We met Juanito at the market who was very kind and help Alain (the volunteer) by carrying most of his stuff for him.In the evening we all ate at Juanitos and it is strange that there will be so many volunteers at the college, we will almost outnumber the local staff!!Thursday 25th FebruaryWorking on my help files today and I downloaded PDF writer a great little program that allows you to save any Microsoft Office document into PDF format. This is going especially for my help files and other simple resources I am making.Been making plans for our Gender workshops which we will be running next week, women in Africa generally have it much rougher than men and it is even more apparent here on Pemba.We were planning on travelling to Zanzibar on Friday to see Marius before he goes home but the fast boats were not running and the only way to travel would be to take a slow 6-7 hour boat on Friday morning and return on the over night slow boat on Sunday night. It was not realistically possible and left us both feeling a bit sad that we couldn’t make Marius’ leaving party.Liz and I got some beers in the evening, it was impulsive and it felt good!Friday 26th FebruaryThe boss asked me to help him with his laptops today, he wanted me to update his anti-virus, there are 3 laptops in his office, one is his, one was bought with last years HIV and AIDS red ribbon fund and the final one is just sitting still in its box on the floor…Saturday we would be gong to a party at Juanitos so I baked a brownie for us to take.In the evening we were due to have no power so I cooked Spag bol and then Liz and I went to the novelty cinema on the main road. It costs tsh500 (25p?) and shows dodgy DVDs on a screen. We watched‘Tomb Raider and the cradle of life’ (I think that’s the name) and it was not actually that bad an experience, it thought it was going to be much worse (both the movie and the cinema!)Saturday 27th FebruaryI got up early and made some more brownie as there was going to be around 10 people at the party and I wanted to make sure there was enough brownie for all!We went down to Juanitos and then Liz and I went to meet the Cuban’s on the way to pick up some beers for the party.Norge and Mairelis (the Cubans) gave me a pair of watches as a late birthday gift, one for Liz and one for me. It was a very nice gesture and I was touched.Peter and the Norwegian vote watcher Evain also came to the party so the world was well represented in a little corner of Pemba. There was Englishmen, an Australian, 3 Filipinos, 2 Cubans and a Norwegian!We had a great evening getting to know each other outside of work, swapping stories, eating good food and drinking Tanzania’s finest beer!Sunday 28th FebruaryLaid back day with lots of rain, still I did some washing and in the evening Juanito and Alain came over for dinner.Spoke to Mum on the phone, talked about coming home and Mum and Dad are moving house. It then got me thinking about the house and all the memories from it. It is going to be strange coming home to a different house.Monday 1st MarchI had two classes on my timetable but no students turned up to the lessons, so I finished my Publisher, PowerPoint and Excel help files and saved them into PDF format for easy reading.At home I was watching‘The Wire’ series 4 and it has now dawned on me that I only have half of the 5th and final series!! What am I going to do?Tuesday 2nd MarchWith the guests I set a publisher exam where they had to copy and poster about Pemba. I explained that we would be moving onto Spreadsheets next and that it would be a little difficult. The 2 lads wanted to know when I would teach them about the Internet and I told them it would be difficult as my classroom is not connected to the Internet… I bought this up with Ramala and she seems to think it is ok to teach them in the Internet room (where there are only 3 computers and it will mean no one else can access the Internet)Ramala asked me when will I be making the certificates for the guests, I told her at the end of the course. She asked if she could have one, despite not doing any of the exams (I must admit I was not surprised she asked though…)Wednesday 3rd MarchVery busy today, lots of the diploma students were coming to the computer room and using the computers, it is great to see them helping each other and trying to use the computers whenever they can. It is a shame they only have 1 and a half hours of practical ICT timetabled each week.Thursday 4th MarchToday Liz and I went down to Juanito’s teachers resource centre to run a workshop about Gender Equality. The participants were pretty good at giving politically correct answers but this probably because they are pretty well educated. We taught them lots of jargon such as the difference between Gender Equity and Gender Equality buton the whole it was a pretty successful workshop.Juanito did a sex game (or HIV game) which was interesting but it was not really about gender. We left them a lunchtime in Juanito’s care and left him the per deims (pay/expenses) we were told to pay them at the end else they would disappear after prayer time. Even all this time after Peter’s departure from Mpwapwa the per diems culture still bugs me.In the evening we had pasta and we drank the last bottle of wine that was meant to be for my birthday trip that didn’t happen. A nice way to end the day!Friday 5th MarchWe did the second of our Gender Equality workshops, this time we were at the college and we presented it to our second year students. The staff were invited but none of them showed up (apart from the boss who peeked his head in for a few minutes).The workshop was even more successful at the college because the students were more comfortable in each other company as they knew each other. We delivered the workshop in the same format. At the end of the workshop one of the teaching staff asked for his per diem despite not even bothering to come at see any of the workshop! To make things worse a teacher who did not attend yesterdays workshop asked for his per diem, the cheek of some people, not turning up and then asking for expenses– if that is the norm no wonder the per diem culture is so bad! We did not give them the money!Saturday 6th MarchWe got up early today as we were going to Misali Island. It was were we planned to go for my birthday. We met up with Juanito, Alain, Pepe and Peter. In Chake we met Ben who is Peters good friend and he drove us down to the port where we were going to catch the boat to the island. At the port we bumped into Anita who is Dutch and who was also going to Island.The Island is a marine sanctuary and a protect area. We bought our own lunch and while we were eating it were approached by some monkeys, they were rather distracting because they big bright electric blue testicles!! Juanito was very impressed!Swimming in the sea was wonderful, there was a strong current but it was lovely to be away from staring eyes and to be able to relax and enjoy the scenery.In the afternoon we went for a wonder around the Island, apparently Captain Cook buried some treasure on the Island but we did not find any... Unfortunately you cannot stay the night on the island, if you could you might see a coconut crab (they can grow up to 1 metre in size and can crack coconut with their claws!) you can also see turtles come onto the beach and lay their eggs.We left the island around 5pm and shared the boat back with a huge Marlin! It must have been at least 7 feet in length. I asked the skipper how much a whole one would cost but he did not know.On the way back home we stopped off at an old Omani theme park which is full of decaying wrecks that used to rides with a couple of working rides which are run once a year on Revolution Day (12th Jan). It was like being a cemetery for theme park rides.We were getting a lift from Pepe back to Wete, on the way home we stopped off at the officers mess in Chake, now I am not a fan of drink driving (and I know they do not have drink driving limits in the Philippines...) but I made sure Pepe did not have more than 2 beers, it is bad enough on the roads here at night and some people are such bad drivers, I just did not want us to take the risk.Got home and there was no power, it was going to be a long night...Sunday 7th MarchRain rain rain pretty much all day, rained on my clean washing too. There was no power either which made the day drag.I wrote a few cards and letters to pass the time and have started reading‘Catch-22’ again, some the stuff in it makes me laugh and you can see some the madness here on Pemba!Monday 8th MarchLiz was sick today with a bad stomach, there was no power at the college after mid morning so I went home to make sure Liz was ok.Liz is quitting smoking and was using her energy to tidy up, I was going to offer to help but figured it was more tactical to keep out of her way!In the evening she cooked homemade fishcakes and spinach– yummy!Tuesday 9th MarchStarted teaching the guests spreadsheets, luckily there was only 3 who turned up so I was able to give them one to one help and we got through the more than I expected. I was pretty pleased with the progress in that lesson.Liz was at home as she was still feeling bad. I combined the two ICT diploma groups and did a theory lesson on software in the hall.I helped Daudi fix the photocopier too, it was a busy day for sure!Back home filled Liz in with the gossip from the day and enjoyed an afternoon with power for once!That’s the update! Time is flying, hope I can finish all I need to do before the end!Take careCurrently missing from home• Family and friends• Sausages• Cauliflower and broccoli• Newspapers and magazinesWill miss from Pemba• Cheap fresh fruit and veg (can buy so much for £2)• Crazy chickens everywhere• Sunsets• Stars at nightWill NOT miss from Pemba• Lack of power• Mosquitoes• Call to prayer at sunrise• People shouting ‘Mzungu!’ at me