Farkwa, Tanzania, Thursday September 25th

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Maria gave us our chapatis early so that we could be at school early – the tasks we had undertaken were seemingly immense for the time we had left. Mr Edson was writing notes on evaporation and condensation on the board but withdrew under the force of Madam Simbee’s argument that we had planned a session. I felt a bit like a lesson bully, but he assured me that it was quite all right. The students have said that science equipment is something that they don’t have and so most of their lessons deal with theory and don’t have accompanying experiments.

With photo projects to start for the form twos today, we had decided to leave the camera for the form ones and work on English skills using a game format. After a very brief re-run of the introduction to me and my life in Australia, and some very perceptive questions that reminded me that there were students in their later teens in this class, we began. Madam Josephine was there too. We made lists of movements, colours, sounds and actions that would be used in formulating some ‘Who am I?’ puzzles and later for a whole class game of ‘Twenty Questions’. I thought that I had explained the task of using the lists as supports in writing questions, but as I set off to help individuals, I could see that there was a lot of list writing going on. After several examples and more explanations in English and Swahili, we were in business.This class has only been learning in English this year; an amazing jump that students make when they start secondary school, and one which must impact on their understanding of content in all their subjects.

Morning tea was ground nuts and delicious little cakes that were moist and dense and not too sweet. The Farkwa weight loss that Rosie had promised me due to inevitable sickness had not eventuated, and Madam Simbee was daily working against it. The next session was with form two C & D – 57 students – and involved them writing a few sentences to go with photos of themselves, in a slide show project that introduced the class members. It was quite a challenge to correct writing, supervise photos, and maintain a list of names in the order that the photos were taken, and it was a good thing that there were two of us to do it.

Keith spent the morning with more computer tutorials with teaching staff, taking one or two at a time, whenever they had no teaching commitments.Keith had decided to finish his sessions early today so that we could visit the World Vision office. The Project Officer, Frank, had called at the school and Keith had flagged the possibility of Mr Chalala being able to use the World Vision Office internet for sending his reports by email to Joy. On a personal level, with a long history of supporting children through World Vision, we were keen to hear about how it all worked in a community, even if not in the communities that our sponsor children live in.

Frank was not so easy to understand, but was very welcoming and sat us down for a talk. When Keith asked about projects, Edward explained the range and Keith selected sustainability to hear more about. It was very interesting to hear that ‘sustainability’ was not being used in the environmental context that we are so familiar with in Australia, but rather in the sense that support is given to projects that can perpetuate themselves and grow, to the benefit of the wider community without the permanent support of World Vision. Thus, no money was given, only materials and support to groups who are setting up businesses. These Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) need to be cooperative efforts, which make the most of the practical benefits of working together, and so that if one person leaves, expertise and commitment is not lost. The next step is for well functioning CBOs to join together to form locally based groups which are able to access regional loans from the government. It tied in with what had been said at the political meeting on Saturday.

We met six or seven workers in a shared office, with those in charge of sponsor children having huge piles of files in front of them. The Farkwa office is one of the three main offices in Tanzania and the workers cover a very large area. They asked us our impressions of Farkwa – there are so many, but I commented on the lack of cars and the friendliness of the people, and Keith on how the students are so polite and well behaved. We went into the locked computer room and saw the facilities there, and Frank said that he thought that Mr Chalala would be able to use it for occasional scholarship business because it is an aid project too.

Aid projects can be viewed quite differently by donors, recipients and observers of that aid. One man was very pally with us, and said immediately that we were his Australian mother and father. This is a cultural difference that some of the sponsors have found difficult to understand in letters. Students have referred to sponsors as their parents, have asked for large gifts like bicycles and sometimes have asked when they can come to Australia. For some Australian sponsors, such requests have been overwhelming and people have wanted to back off a bit. After all, they were only providing assistance with education, not adopting a child. It was an odd thing to meet this in a man in his late twenties, with a good job, and even odder when, after only the third meeting with him, he asked Keith if we would give him a computer and if we could help to find another job for him. We, too, wanted to back off.

Frank escorted us home, and I spent quite a while typing up the form two introductions on the front step, with the dogs flaked out in the shade and the ever busy chooks on the lookout for food.That evening, Hawa, who is in form two, and Keith tried to put the photos with the typing on the form two slide show, but they were working in the bedroom to the very dim light of a torch with batteries that were on the way out. Rosie was having a rare evening over with the family sitting around the fire, Jarvah was asleep and Sebi was with me. We looked at a book together. It was a strange book, in English, and was a school reader dealing with inter-tribal abuse and the law. Luckily there were some more child-friendly pictures of animals and we focused on those. The English program at school includes reading materials such as this, with themes that are very relevant to modern life in Africa, are high interest for teenagers and yet are written in English at different levels. Rosie and Ticha had bought many new titles to add to the collection when they arrived in Tanzania, using funds raised by the scholarship group. Daily, I came to realise how much work Joy and the sponsors have done, and also how much time and effort Rosie and Ticha have put into fulfilling all the tasks given to them in relation to the scholarships while they have been here.

Eventually Rosie returned for bed, having had a ‘once in a blue moon’ night out, if only to the fireside, and she was happy to have had that time with Ticha in the heart of the family.

Many of the trees in Tanzania are deciduous. They lose their leaves in the dry season to reduce moisture loss. They look dead now but by December they will be covered in new leaves.