Merry Christmas

...from a warm and sunny Tanzania!

 

Christmas Day photos here

Flying out for Christmas...

 
Alice's parents and Paul's mother and sister landed in Mwanza late last Friday and after a packed journey in a Land Cruiser with a lot of bags and a Tanzanian welcome party, we arrived safely in Shinyanga. Bags were unpacked that night to get our much requested and begged for supplies of cheese, rashers and chocolate. The next morning further gifts and treats were unloaded and we are delighted to have cupboards full of mince pies, crisps and home baking. We're also all very glad that sufficient supply of deodorant for Paul has been delivered.

We've spent the last few days showing our guests around Shinyanga and they have experienced Tanzanian church in Swahili, visited the school and tried Ugali (local maize porridge), with the Ugali receiving mixed reviews! They have endured, sorry enjoyed, two church services of 4 hours each already but thankfully with the entertainment of a visiting choir and in the coolness of the rainy season.

In the spirit of African togetherness, we've decided to hand over the rest of this post to the initial thoughts of our highly esteemed visitors...

Dada yangu (Clare): the people are incredibly friendly and I have been surprised that they actually seem to like Alice and Paul! [ed. note: rude...]

Mama yangu (Joan): enjoying the beautiful country and people but unsettled by the poverty we've already seen and the global inequality that influences it

Mama mkwe wangu (Donna): I love and appreciate the sincere welcome and generous hospitality of Tanzanians

Baba mkwe wangu (Eric): people are great and I really admire their hard-working attitude but my head hurts from being confronted with how unfair the world is

We do miss the rest of our families, Paul's Dad and Alice's brother couldn't make it, but we are delighted to have family with us for Christmas! Click here for some photos.

When Helping Hurts

Statistically, Tanzania is an extremely poor country. The 26^th poorest country in the world, it ranks below Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and even South Sudan in terms of GDP. We are constantly confronted with widespread poverty; it’s hard to miss. Families living in one room houses with no electricity, children collecting drinking water from roadside puddles, schools whose only form of shelter is a tree are all fairly normal sights as you travel around. Material poverty is a serious problem in so many countries and while here to ‘help’, we have been challenged to think about how best to approach what we see as such obvious needs.

Before our arrival in Tanzania, we attended an orientation day with Tearfund in London. There we were told a story designed to illustrate some of the potential negative repercussions when we, as the worlds economically rich, respond to what we perceive as a need in the majority world. The story went something like this:

Members of an organisation visited a community in a rural town somewhere in East Africa. People in this town were impoverished, crops had been poor that year and children were starving. The organisation’s members left feeling the weight of these people’s lives in their hearts and decided to act. Hurried arrangements were made and crates of eggs were transported to the community. The eggs provided a much needed source of protein and immediate starvation was alleviated. The following year the organisation visited a different community in the region and found a similar situation. Having already responded to the need in Community A, they decided they would now give to Community B.

The unconsidered effects of the organisation’s actions went far beyond the immediate delivery of eggs. A family in Community A had a business of 100 chickens and their extended family made a living selling eggs. With the influx of free eggs their business failed and they were forced to sell their chickens and coups to a family in another village. The family became destitute and the next year, when the organisation had moved onto Community B, the family not only had no eggs but Community A had nowhere to buy eggs. Despite its good intentions, the organisation's approach had actually increased the material poverty and potential starvation in a vulnerable community.

This story stuck with us as we realised, possibly for the first time, the potential damage our actions could have in this context. This initial thought process has been further challenged and encouraged by reading a book called ‘When Helping Hurts’. The book calls into question and gives useful advice on how, as the wealthiest communities that have ever lived, we respond to material poverty in the majority of the world.

Reading this book has urged us to "learn how to walk with the poor in humble relationships, rather than providing temporary handouts to them." One aspect that we have been particularly struck by is the potential impact of a poverty alleviation approach that is designed and led by ‘outsiders’ –noting the possibility this has to increase the arrogance of the financially rich as well as increasing the feelings of inferiority and shame of the economically poor. “The way we act toward the economically poor often communicates—albeit unintentionally—that we are superior and they are inferior. In this process we hurt the poor and ourselves”. We have quickly realised that while we have skills and expertise that could have a positive impact, we have a lot to learn about relationships, humility and patience. Our economic richness does not mean we are automatically equipped to identify the most effective way to meet the needs of any community.

At times we have been surprised at our own arrogance. While outwardly denying racial superiority, we secretly believe that we do in fact know best. Initially, even our language reflected this, declaring ourselves as ‘here to help’. Slowly this has changed, we are here to partner.

In the story of the eggs, perhaps the organisation could have used local knowledge, asked what resources the community already had and subsidised the cost of local eggs – helping those who had no food but also ensuring a sustainable supply of eggs in the future. For us, we are aware that everything we do needs to be locally led and support those who have been tirelessly working for the good of their communities before we got here and will continue to do so when we leave.

We miss Tesco

We’ve been on our school holidays for the past two weeks so time has been filled with the normal things of life - the everyday tasks that sometimes seem quite bizarre in the context of our previous life. In the absence of any other excitement, we decided to share some of our weekly challenges and joys.

We miss Tesco. Daily food shopping includes a walk to our local bread lady where we proudly ask for ‘mkate’ and ‘mayai’ if the local chickens have been in a laying mood. It’s then onto the moving fruit cart and the canny banana lady whose prices seem to be indirectly proportional to the size of our smiles and length of time spent greeting her and her friends. Finally, a visit to the vegetable market which consists primarily of avoiding the piles of dried fish and trying to work out what a ripe aubergine is supposed to look like. 

Tanzanian fruit and vegetables are local, season fresh and much tastier than the chemically treated, frozen-for-long-journey varieties we are used to. It’s currently mango season which is an incredibly delicious time of year. Not all our fruit has to be bought, we are fortunate enough to have quite a few fruit trees in our garden and have even resorted to climbing to get at the best lemons, limes and papaya.

When in the market, we usually have a tentative look at the meat section...always disconcerting when the meat section engages you in staring contest before returning to peck and scratch. Our lack of killer instinct has meant that our home diet has been entirely vegetarian, only eating meat when it has been slaughtered and cooked by someone else. Having struggled to decide whether to pick a spritely, optimistic, king-of-the-coup chicken or do the humane thing and pick the dejected one in the corner that looks as though it would appreciate being put out of its misery, we have persuaded friends to buy, keep and kill chickens for our Christmas dinner.

Home dinners mostly consist of rice and vegetables. In the absence of Uncle Bens quick boil rice in our local ‘duka’, it has taken us quite a bit of practice to master the art of rice cooking. After many stodgy, sticky, lumpy attempts we discovered that the rice must be washed, soaked for 30 minutes, sautéed in oil and boiled in salty water. The learning process did provide us with our own recipe for ‘creamed rice’ – our many failed attempts becoming a white congealed mass which turns out to be tasty with sugar and banana. 

There’s no municipal waste disposal facility so every couple of weeks we gather together as many dry leaves as possible and carefully pile our plastic bags of rubbish on top. While admittedly bad for the environment, burning does seem quite effective – although we do now have a small charred pile of glass bottles and tins in our front garden. 

We’re delighted our families are visiting for Christmas; a countdown of days has been going for some time! We’ve been stocking up on all the visitor essentials – charcoal, insect repellent and beds. The bug spray and charcoal are easy enough to get, although we are learning to always check a charcoal bag for sneaky rocks, bits of damp wood and other ‘filler’. The previous tenant of our house took one of the beds with him so we’re going to have to buy or hire some for Christmas. 9 days and no beds – we really are adjusting to Africa time well.

Teacher Training

After a day of invigilating exams, a Land Rover of teachers (collective noun questionable) arrived at our house for ‘An Introduction to using a Projector in the Classroom’ – evening one of an exciting forthcoming series.  The AICT secondary school is closely linked with one in Denmark and the ‘sister school’ has very kindly donated two projectors, three laptops and two tablets (they are referred to as iPads, no trademark issues here).

The school are very keen to start using technology and feel it would attract more students. Like us, the school’s white teachers, the projectors also feature in the current advertising campaign although it is still unclear as to which is the bigger draw. A projector is a complete novelty here, for teachers as well as students, so we offered to do some informal training to get them started. A brief question time established that one teacher had access to a PC at home, some had never used a computer and only a couple had internet capable phones.

The Principal had seen a projector in action but none of the teachers had used one before so it was an introductory session in the truest sense of the word. They are very enthusiastic about the potential of using technology in the school so were eager to find out as much as possible. Paul went through how to connect it, emphasised that a projector is just a big screen, as well as discussing how fragile they are – especially in this hot, dusty environment. There had been much chat over the previous weeks about magical ‘PowerPoint’ and when Alice opened a blank PowerPoint document, there were hints of disappointment as she chatted through the preparation required to turn it into an effective teaching aid.

We also showed Physics experiment videos to show that presentation software was only one potential use. A projector and access to the internet would allow a teacher here to find and use resources from all over the world. As suggested by one teacher, she could use the projectors to show students pictures of other countries. Something not possible now when there aren’t even enough text books to go round. However, as we kept saying, a good teacher is a good teacher and a projector is only another potential tool to be used alongside other teaching techniques.

The highlight of the evening was when we showed a sample English language resource; the Lion King. Most readers will have unconsciously been taught their first Swahili words through undoubtedly one of the greatest movies of all time. 'Simba' Rafiki' and 'Sarabi' now being staples in our Swahili language storehouse. We have found out over the past few weeks that the Lion King never reached Tanzanian shores – hence, when we say ‘Hakuna Matata’ it isn’t met with the knowing smiles and the few hummed lines we’d expect. It really was a privilege to share Timon and Pumbaa (Swahili for ‘thoughtless’) singing ‘no problem’ to a group of Swahili speakers for the first time.

We think that the technology is a great addition to the school but only if the teachers feel confident enough to use it in their classrooms. The laptops and projectors are currently not being used and all involved in the school feel that they need to be benefiting students as soon as possible. This week’s installment was well received so we are planning on continuing to help and train the teachers over the next few weeks and into the new year, we’ll keep you posted.

Class Two: ‘Turning on a Computer’...

Mwanza

Last weekend we spent two days in Mwanza, Tanzania’s second largest city, located on the shore of Lake Victoria. It’s about two and a half hours drive north of Shinyanga with plenty to look at on the way. Being the main city on this side of the country, it has a fairly major airport and a decent road between the two has made Shinyanaga much more accessible in recent years.

The trip was a bit of a holiday and also a chance to visit Tearfund Tanzania’s main office. Tearfund moved from Dar to Mwanza over the summer and now share a compound with AICT’s country headquarters and a few other organisations. Much of Tearfund’s involvement in Tanzania is focused on areas within the ‘Lake Zone’ (regions near Lake Victoria) which includes Mwanza and Shinyanga so the relocation allows them to be closer to more of their projects.

Mwanza has a wide range of shops, restaurants and things to see. There are also more Mzungus wandering the streets so we’re not quite the novelty we are in Shinyanga! We got to see some huge snakes at disconcertingly close quarters – click here for photographic proof. Rumours of a pizzeria didn’t quite materialise but we did manage to find a chicken curry. On Friday night we went to see some live African music; a heady, enjoyable mix of Congolese and Tanzanian beats which will be high on the agenda for any potential visitors.

The area is famous for its striking rocky outcrops so on the way home we stopped by Mwanza’s best known landmark – Bismarck Rock. Not quite sure how it stays like that, particularly with the storms that hit pretty regularly. Must be stuck on or picked up and replaced an awful lot... 

Comfort FM

...unique new york...the human torch was denied a bank loan...

Given 2 hours notice for our first appearance on Tanzanian radio, our Ron Burgundy inspired vocal warm up routine was in full flow as we made our way to Faraja FM studios in Shinyanga. Short notice is the order for the day here, even for a looming live radio broadcast!

The school we are working with are expanding and looking to enrol enough students to increase numbers by 50% before the start of the new academic year in January. AICT had secured some time on an evening talk show so we were brought along to add some English language glamour.

The studio was small with foam lined walls for sound proofing giving it the ambience of a padded cell. There were 7 of us in a studio designed for less which made sharing the one available mic and headphone set a tricky operation. Any noise was met with some furious hand waving from the presenter who, ever the professional, didn’t break stride as he organised his 7 guests, fielded incoming calls and texts, monitored a temperamental A/C unit and timed his jingles to perfection.

The majority of the time was spent giving an overview of the school in Swahili from the Principal and other AICT staff. During a prolonged silence, everyone turned and looked at Alice and she was beckoned to the microphone – clearly the previous Swahili has been her introduction. Feverish whispering of ‘express yourself’ and a room full of ‘thumbs up’ accompanied the commencement of Alice’s fledgling radio career.

We both spoke briefly and were very relieved when we had finished. Part of the show was for callers to comment or ask questions. One was very happy to hear English speakers on the radio – always good to get positive feedback from the masses! You can see more photos here.

It was all felt a bit surreal, especially with so little notice. Apparently the programme will be repeated during the week so any regular listeners to Faraja FM out there may still be able to catch our dulcet tones. We also appear briefly in a TV ad for the school – coming soon.

Swahilli word of the day: faraja (comfort) 

Our House is on the Internet

Not sure how we haven't noticed this before but we've found our house on Bing Maps aerial imagery. The internet really is amazing. If you look closely enough you can see our substantial looking perimeter walls of which we now only have three.

We've also put up some general information about education and water access in Shinyanga, links can be found along the top of the blog.

Paul has had some productive conversations relating to water at the school this week. The school has a mains water supply but it is unreliable and expensive. They are starting to limit the availability of water to students as costs increasingly become an issue. They do have plenty of roof area, and will get an abundance of rain over the next few months so we're are looking at setting up a rainwater harvesting system to provide the school with an reliable, free source of water. Again, the internet is coming in very useful and significant research is currently being undertaken!

We are starting to feel part of the community and have had visits from neighbours, other teachers and people from the church. We have a fridge so cold 'sodas' seem to be a big draw. We are really enjoying getting to know people and, over countless colas, feel we are beginning to get a better understanding the Tanzanian culture and mindset. 

One of the favourite conversation topics is the weather in Ireland. Facts like 'it rains most of the time but we hardly ever have thunderstorms', 'yes, we do know what temperatures less than 0 degrees feel like' and 'no, we're not used to seeing the sun for more than two days in a row' are regularly met with incredulity! A particular highlight was 'ice - that's like sand but cold, isn't it?'...yes, I suppose that's one possible description.

History in school has a heavy focus on colonisation and the effect it has had on Tanzania. A history teacher told us that the students do not like white people as a result, although thankfully we seem to be exempt from such wrath. Pointing out that Ireland was also colonised by the British did get a few laughs. Although trying to explain that the UK kept a bit of Ireland has proven slightly harder!

Another of the teachers told us that old style colonisation may have ended but that it hasn't stopped western countries exploiting their former colonies. Citing examples of foreign run gold mines, mass exportation of Tanzania's natural resources and meagre cash crop prices, he said that the West has simply changed the title to 'globalisation' and continues to offer local people a vastly unfair deal. Certainly an interesting and thought provoking point...

Mr and Mrs Paul 2

On Saturday we had the privilege of attending a local wedding of a couple called Paul and Ruth. In some ways, weddings here are similar to home – big dress, church service, reception meal and partying into the small hours. Of course there are also a lot of local customs that made the day particularly interesting for a couple of foreign visitors. The wedding we attended was hosted by the bride’s brother-in-law and not her immediate family. This reflects the ‘one for all’ Tanzanian attitude to family and the sharing and generosity it involves.

The church service lasted a fairly standard 3 hours with plenty of singing and dancing, although thankfully with minimal audience participation. It also became apparent that there’s no such thing as ‘walking’ at any point during the day, no matter what the distance, dancing was the only acceptable method of movement. Towards the end of the service, the congregation were invited to come forward and congratulate the newly married couple so unlike in Ireland where an orderly queue would be formed, we found ourselves part of a raucous conga line!

After the service, we went for lunch which was accompanied by yet more choir singing and dancing, just to make sure any silence was avoided. The food was delicious and included beef, our first taste of red meat in Tanzania. Apparently we almost missed out on our meaty treat though. The bride’s brother-in-law told us that he was sent to walk a mile to collect the beef earlier in the day, and obviously beef is easier to transport when it is still alive to walk the journey itself. Dinner had other ideas and decided to make a break for freedom. This resulted in a very hot and tired brother-in-law missing most of the service. The morning exercise only seemed to tenderise the meat and lunch was enjoyed by all.

On the way home for a break and ‘resty’ between celebrations, a passing comment revealed that we were expected to match the bridal party’s chosen colour theme of blue and yellow for the evening reception. Apparently the more ‘bridesmaid’ you look the better, clearly dress clashing isn’t the social faux pas it is at home. A swift change of shirt, altering of a dress and dismantlement of a yellow cushion cover, we were all set.

After attending a wedding here, some things we wish we knew when we got married:

• It’s perfectly acceptable to say how much cash your gift should be. And even print it on the invitation. And refuse entry if it’s not paid.
• Walking is never an option. Always dance!
• Gifts should be proudly displayed and presented. The more people carrying it the better. 
• Food should be as fresh as possible...kill your cow that morning.
• Once married, the bride should always carry the man’s jacket and prepare his own special food plate. Obviously marriage renders all men helpless.
• The only way to travel around town is with the accompaniment of a brass band on the back of a flat bed truck.
• Main course should include beef four ways and chicken three ways. And a boiled banana.

We’ve set up a flickr account with some photos of the day. They can be accessed here.

Swahilli word of the day: pongezi (congratulations – used extensively throughout the day)

Our wall fell over...

Shinyanga was hit by a huge storm on Saturday night, thunder and lightning like nothing we'd ever experienced, although we've since been told that it wasn't anything special and that there's a lot worse to come!

Woke up on Sunday morning to a unexpected sight from our kitchen window - the house next door. Turns out the particularly loud thunder we heard at one point was the wall between us and our neighbours being blown over. Thankfully no one was hurt but it did hit the wall of the other house and cause some damage. See before and after photos below.

The owner of the house has been great and there's now a construction team working on the re-build. Apparently they couldn't get hold of any pre-made breeze blocks so are making hundreds by hand, one at a time. We also have no water at the moment so they have to walk and get water to mix the concrete. Really is a slow and painful process in some serious heat. Think a lack of foundations may have contributed to the original collapse so will be interesting to see if that's rectified this time.

It did give us a good opportunity to meet our neighbours who are very friendly and may even supply us with a few eggs, every Tanzanian cloud...

Tanzanian Premier League

Saturday, 4pm (advertised at 2pm but 2 hours isn’t even close to being ‘late’), optimistic crowds and the unmistakable howl of vuvuzelas can only mean one thing – it’s Tanzania Vodacom Premier League time. Young Africans from Dar, one of the best teams in the country, were in town to play local team Stand United. 

Stand United really are one of the success stories of modern football. Delightfully named after the bus stands where the idea for forming a team was originally hatched, the team is comprised of local talent who have never forgotten their roots. Loyal to their club, playing with pride in their shirts and with an annual budget comparable to the cost of one of Wayne Rooney’s hair plugs, they really are the local boys done good, now plying their trade in the upper echelons of Tanzanian football.

Unfortunately the fairytale was not destined to continue on Saturday as Stand United were outplayed by a superior Young Africans team featuring not one but two star/aging Brazilians. The near capacity crowd of 10,000 (unofficial estimates nearer 20,000) at Kambarage Stadium in Shinyanga was rocked by an early Yanga goal from which Stand never really recovered. The young, skilful Stand-onians had no reply to a team consisting of six members of the national team and as tired legs and minds kicked in, the visitors helped themselves to two late goals to finish with an emphatic victory.

Football clichés aside, it was a remarkable experience and a great match to watch. We had ‘VIP’ tickets which granted us permission to drive into the stadium and park along the sidelines. Unfortunately we were too late to take in a car but we were able to stand beside the subs bench for the first half, felt more like a member of the team’s back-room staff than a casual observer! 

Tanzanians really are passionate about their football so the atmosphere was incredible – no idea how people dance, sing and blow vuvuzelas for 90 minutes at temperatures well over 30 degrees.  However, passions spilled over into some bad tempered bottle throwing at half time so we had to make a quick escape from where the players had gathered until police intervention had calmed things down.

During the second half, Young Africans decided to abandon their designated subs bench so, not having a seat ourselves, we were invited to take advantage and enjoyed the best view in the house (click here for photos). We were very aware of how conspicuous we were, the only white people in the stadium sitting on the players’ seats, but all part of our ‘Mzungu’ experience.

Stand United til I die...not sure if season tickets exist though, or a fantasy league...

Swahilli word of the day: Ligi kuu Bara

means National Premier League - Google it for further news, views and updates

Mr. and Mrs. Paul

Our current routine consists of Monday to Wednesday in school and Thursday / Friday spent initially observing community based projects with the aim of becoming more involved in those as the months progress – we have a lot to learn and get used to before we get really stuck in! The school is a good place to get used to how things work, meet local people and help us feel like we’re instantly involved.

As we are now called in school, Mrs. Paul is teaching English and Mr. Paul has got roped into helping with a few Physics classes so our evenings are spent refreshing distant Junior Cert Physics knowledge and trying to work out what using the present continuous tense to convey repetitive irritation means (answers on a postcard to Mr. and Mrs. Paul, Shinyanga please). Thankfully, secondary school education In Tanzania is all done through English so our lack of Swahili does have some uses. It seems to be going well so far, we think...

Alice is having a lot of fun with the standard English comprehension texts in her class which have included gems such as “The woman’s husband has died. When is the funeral?”, “Why was he buried that day?” and question and answer sessions with responses like “I like to pray, I do not like to death”. Needless to say, Alice is going to try and inject some less morbid themes into her classes. 

Water and electricity supply are interrupted relatively often here (as we type this we’re in the middle of a power cut) but you adjust to that pretty quickly, cooking meals and charging phones when you have it and reading by torch light when you don’t. We are also very fortunate that the house has a water storage tank so we always have a steady supply.

However, the school is badly affected by water outages, particularly as they need quite a bit to feed and wash 200 boarding students. Last week, the school’s supply was stopped because a heavy truck drove over a mains pipe – an avoidable error in its own right. Within a short space of time, their storage tanks were drained so the students had to take it in turns to walk with buckets to a pump half a mile away which majorly disrupts classes. Although, as with most things that pose a problem here, the collection of water was done with a cheerful attitude that sees such adversity as a challenging part of life to be overcome, not wallowed in.

The lack of water is also a major issue in terms of hygiene and health and is something that the school is looking to rectify. During a meeting we were told that now there’s a Water Engineer here, we won’t have any more problems so looks like Paul will be involved in that – no pressure!  We are beginning to adjust to the pace and approach to life here but as we do we increasingly realise that it will take time to overcome our limitations.

To see some pictures of our school, click here

Our New House

After a welcome week in a hotel which allowed us to adjust to our new surroundings slowly, we moved into our house on Wednesday. It's not far from the centre of Shinyanga and is close to AICT's office as well as on the road to the school so it's an ideal location for us. It's also quite big and in an ‘upmarket' part of town - certainly at the upper end of the housing spectrum. 

While a very safe place and community, it's normal to have decent security which in our case consists of a perimeter wall with razor wire, locked gates, barred windows and a guard who sits at our front door from 7pm to 7am every night. Does feel a bit overkill (although we could have done with all that in Belfast) but as ‘Mzungu’s we do attract added attention so better safe than sorry.

Houses here don’t generally come furnished so we were very fortunate and thankful that the owner left us a bed, fridge, kettle and cooking hob – all things we would have had to buy if they hadn’t been here. Appliances cost the same or more than in Ireland and can be hard to get so having a fridge in this climate is a real bonus. The house also has air conditioning in the bedroom and living room so we really are living in luxury!

Everything else we needed we had to go and buy so in the absence of IKEA, we visited the gloriously named establishments ‘Amazing Grace’ homewares, ‘The Japanese Corner Shop’ (not a piece of sushi or even a Japanese person in the vicinity), and the ‘Half London Gift Shop’ where we bought and will continue to buy our eggs. Unfortunately, Amazing Grace only had one knife available during our visit so having cleaned them out, we will continue to share until a further shipment arrives!

Thankfully, we had help during our shopping spree, otherwise it would have been near impossible. We start Swahili lessons on Monday and they really can’t come soon enough.
  
The house is fantastic and we’re very glad to have moved in and are well on the way to making it feel like home. We’re always delighted to have visitors so feel free to call in anytime...

Swahilli word of the day: Mzungu - literally means someone who wanders without purpose but came to be applied to all white people in East Africa and heard regularly when you’re the tallest, whitest person in a town

7am....

....is the time that church starts...and was still going when we left at 12:30!

Not that we're complaining, it was an amazing experience, just something new to get used to over the next year! 

We went to AICT's main church in Shinyanga which has over 1000 people attending Sunday services. In true African style, there was plenty of singing and dancing as well as smiles and laughter. We were introduced at both morning services, hence the extended stay. One service usually lasts for about 3 hours and we'll probably be attenders of the 7am - it can get very hot by 12. We were brought to the front and gave a brief introduction of who we are and our plans for the year which was warmly received, followed by a large number of hugs and handshakes! 

There was a very welcome break for a typical Tanzanian breakfast of tea and chapatis between the services - much needed energy for a second round of song and dance in Swahili! Church here is a truly social affair with stories, greetings and choreographed dances helping the time fly. The people are very friendly and the church will be a very enjoyable community to be part of.

We were told later that day that 'Sunday is for Church' and can last varying amounts of time. A church that runs until 4pm was recommended but we may need to build ourselves up slowly for that marathon!

School Graduation

This week’s big event was the final year graduation ceremony at Bishop Nkola secondary school – the school set up and run by AICT in Shinyanga. The school was established in 2009 with one student and has grown to over 200 this year. In line with AICT’s development philosophies, the school focuses particularly on educating girls from poorer backgrounds who are often more likely to miss out on education. 

 

There are 8 classrooms, each with a blackboard and desks but no windows. The school plans on increasing numbers over the next few years and is currently involved in building further dorms and a kitchen.

Graduation was a 5 hour affair with plenty of speeches, lots of singing and dancing and even some comedy. It turned out that it was also being used to welcome us so from our esteemed seats at the ‘top table’ we had to chip in with a couple of off-the-cuff speeches but no dancing, thankfully!