Last days in Wete...
on Kev in Tanzania (Tanzania), 01/Jun/2010 09:04, 34 days ago
Better late than never! Here is an update of the last days on Pemba - written from the comfort of my parents living room, there is power, drinkable tap water but it is a little chilly!Monday 19th AprilWe had power so I was able to install Scratch onto the computers in my classroom. Scratch is object orientated programming language which is very simple to learn and since the ministry insisted that programming is learnt - this seemed like the best choice for Tanzania!Had an email from Neema about criminal records - she said that I would need a finger print check from Dar before going home otherwise it is hard to get a CRB check in England. The problem is it takes 7 days for the check to be completed - how was I going to be able to get this? I only have 3 days in Dar... Very frustrating that we were not told this earlier!!There was no in the market so we had chip wraps for dinner.Tuesday 20th AprilNo power in the night or at college during the day– they did put the generator for guests though only 1 was there! But there was no generator for my class of 33 students! Strange priorities... And there are only a few lessons left...We had power at home from 3-6 and in the evening Liz made homemade fishcakes - yummy!Another early night as no power but many pesky mosquitoes!Wednesday 21st AprilPower at college today so used the time to show the students how to use the website. It was now finished and copied to all of the computers. I showed them how to open it and access all of the resources I made and then let them try it for themselves. I hope I have left a legacy which means they can study when I am gone.Thursday 22nd AprilWe worked from home today was there was power. We made another quiz for the last week and made sure our reports were complete for VSOFor dinner I cooked the last of the Daal - delicious!Saturday 24th AprilRelaxing day and there was power so I watched lots of South Park - good to have a laugh! South Park is clever than many people give it credit (well at least in my opinion...)Liz and I played some games - we got some good banter going, especially with the miniputt!I made some CDs with resources on for the college because I was not sure if the computers will ever be formatted - it is always good to have a back up!To try and use up our food I made a brownie again and put nuts in it.As there was no power in the evening we went to the mess for dinner and few beers. It was probably the last time...(I cant remember when we had our last meal at Juanitos - but we did bump into some French travellers and we invited them along)Tuesday 27th AprilNo power today but the generator was put on (possibly because I was angry about it not being on last time...) The principle came and saw me and said that he is going to Burundi for a week so he will not see Douglas when he comes on Thursday. It is funny he had been complaining for months about not seeing Douglas but when the chance arises he is away on a visit...Wednesday 28th AprilNo power again or internet - the router power supply is broken. They put the generator on again as it is my last lessonWe had a phone call at 5pm from Neema confirming that Doug would be visiting us but then at 8pm he called us to cancel his visit - so in all my time in my placement Douglas did not visit at all although VSO are meant to visit at least once. The reason for not coming was that he was in a long meeting about funding which ran on too long. Still very frustrating for us volunteers on Pemba who never get visited.We invited Juanito, Sigrun and Eivind over for dinner and Liz cooked up a nice pasta - it was our last meal in Wete together.Thursday 29th AprilSo there was no Douglas visiting today, I found a different power supply and got the router working. I sent Douglas and the country director an email explaining that we were disappointed at not being visited and told them I was annoyed at having to now spend some of my time in Dar before flying home at VSO doing things that should have been done when Douglas had visited us. It would mean not being able to spend as much time with Liz before we depart.We took some of our stuff to Juanitos house using the cow and cart - we returned the stuff in the house that belonged to his TC and give him our cooker and fridge.In the evening we gave away all the things that we did not need to our neighbours, Daudi and White.For dinner we had chip wraps and I gave the boy who sells wraps my football - he was really happy!Friday 30th AprilLast day in Wete! We went to the college to do some farewells. We did our last extra curricular quiz and Liz showed them a presentation with lots of nice photos in it.After the students had left we had a meal with the staff and they gave us some presents which was very kind. We all did some speeches and then walked home.We grabbed our bags and hired a dala to take us to Mkoani (Liz had loads of bags but that was because she was bringing lots of things for other people). As we had not had our pay for April we stopped off in Chake and picked it up without a hitch (a miracle!)We were going to stay with Pepe in Mkoani and met him near the port. We took him to Jordeni guest house as a treat and we had dinner with Eivind and Sigrun as they had just come back from Zanzibar.After dinner Pepe gave us some beers and I gave him copies of all of my movies on my hard drive.There it is... The lastpost from activities in Wete - there are a few days missing - I may have to check with Liz for the gaps and other details!