Two weeks back in Bukoba

The past two weeks have been a roller coaster of events and emotions. Bairu, a Canadian Cuso volunteer, who has been here for a year and a half and who created the project we are working on was taken ill. It turns out that he has a devastating cancer diagnosis and is now back in Canada about to begin treatment. The outlook is not good. Christa, another of our volunteer group on the project spent nearly 3 weeks with him in the Nairobi hospital. Her empathetic heart was a comfort for Bairu as he learned about his illness but it has taken a toll on her also. However, she has sprung back with great strength. So now we are five at least for several months. Our project manager, Mnubi, a Tanzanian, Alex also Tanzanian is our community liaison person and Louisa, Christa and me. We are in the process of regrouping.

After my nearly four day journey back to Bukoba, I had Sunday to ‘rest’ then there was a four day workshop on Child Rights for the head teachers (principals). This was given by our potential funder, Pestalozzi Children’s Foundation.  As we were only observers at this workshop little effort was made to have any of the presentations in English. I sat listening to Swahili trying to keep my eyes open because for me it was the middle of the night (a ten hour time change). Alex translated much of the goings on but when he was talking he couldn’t be listening so we missed many things. Also he wasn’t there all the time. A lot of time was spent guiding the head teachers to see that using the stick for any and all misdemeanors (including many that were not the child’s responsibility) was not okay. As a team we gained insight into the depth of the issue.

We are hoping the funding will be finalized this week and we can get the final action plan. In the meantime we are now creating a document on what teachers can do instead of using the stick. Some will be relatively easy to implement such as learning and using the children’s names but others depend on developing new teaching methodologies. That’s what we are here for so the workshop helped to focus our efforts.

There is African music from some nightclub reaching our heights on the hill now accompanying the crickets and added to with howling dogs. Last weekend we had guest VSO volunteers from the greater hinterland. It was wonderful to have them. Also this weekend we had other volunteers staying with us. We all and others went to lunch at a place on the beach. It was heavenly.

Meals at a restaurant here are a social occasion. Your order something to drink – Fanta, beer, water- then about a half hour later someone comes to take the food order. In an hour or an hour and a half the food arrives. They certainly make sure you are hungry. But sitting on the sandy beach in the shade of a banana leaf umbrella waiting for the meal and talking to interesting people creates the slowing down that is one of the best virtues of being in Africa.