Day 13
Today we are visiting some of the schools that we support in Mwanza and after that we are driving to Geita.
We checked out of our hotel in Mwanza and then headed to Kabangaja Primary School. It is dry and sunny today and so we had some good views across the lake.
When we arrived at the school we were met by the head teacher, Emmanual the ICT teacher and the Chair of the School Committee. Today we were giving them 2 computers and a projector. We have supported the school since 2017 and they have now received 7 computers, 1 printer and 1 projector from us.
We renewed their Computer Loan Contract and they updated us on how the school is using the computers.
The classes at this school are all large and so they split them into groups when getting practical experience on the computers. So Standard 6 has over 100 students so they are split into 3 groups and each group gets 3 x 40 minutes per week using the computers. The school teaches ICT theory to Standard 5 but they don’t regularly use the computers. The computers are used in other lessons as such as Maths. About half the teachers also use the computers to plan lessons, do research, write reports, prepare and print exams and to submit required information to the government. Teachers from a few other schools also use the computers for admin tasks as well. A few members of the local community are now showing an interest in learning how to use the computers, especially older brothers and sisters of pupils at the school. We have challenged the head teacher and Emmanual to try to encourage and help the other teachers at the school to use the computers and also to increase the community use.
We then handed over the new computers and projector and took them to the computer lab. There were a few Standard 7 pupils around who helped and it was good to see that they knew how to install and use the computers. We also spent some time showing them how to use the projector, however they will need to pin a white sheet up on the wall as a screen to really use it properly.
We then just popped our heads into the Standard 6 and Standard 4 classrooms.
Emmanual then pointed out that they were building some new classrooms and one would be a computer lab. In Tanzania, for projects such as these the local community have to raise the funds and start the project and then when they have built the walls to a specific height the government will fund the rest of it. Emmanual told us they had the bricks already so they should be fine to complete the project before we visit next year.....but I will wait and see!!
We have supported this school for a couple of years. They still don’t have any electricity although the local council have promised to provide it for the last couple of years. So today we have brought them another laptop to add to the 2 they already have.
There is a new head teacher at the school called Jesca so it was nice to meet her and Helen, the ICT teacher. The school now have nearly 900 children and 9 teachers so it is very difficult to provide the children with practical experience in ICT with only a few laptops but the teachers can take them into classes and at least demonstrate how to use them. The teachers themselves obviously us them for all the normal admin jobs, the same as Kabangaja. The hope is that by next year they will have electricity and we can start to equip a proper computer lab for them.
Jesca then showed us the Standard 6 and Standard 3 classroom. As you will see the younger children don’t have enough desks and have to sit on the floor.
So that concluded our school visits for today and we returned to the ACTT office to collect all the computer equipment that we are taking to the schools in Geita and Chato.
We left the office in Mwanza around 12.30 and then made a short detour to a school on the outskirts of Mwanza to drop off Thomas before driving go the Kamanga Ferry Terminal. When we arrived a ferry was just docking and for once we were really lucky and got pretty much straight on. It costs TSH 400 (about 13p) for foot passengers and TSH 6000 (about £2) for the car.
The crossing takes about 30 minutes and we managed to get a quick lunch of beans and rice whilst onboard.
It was interesting to see that they are planning to build a bridge across this corner of Lake Victoria and at present are building a smaller bridge that will be used to build the larger bridge. This all looks like a large project and could take a while I guess.
Once we docked and disembarked we had to fight our way through all the bus passengers to find Shabani and the car, then we are soon back on the road again.
It wasn’t long before the rain arrived which was quickly followed by our first police check. Luckily he could find nothing wrong and off we went again. Soon the sun appeared again, followed by 2 further police checks both without incident.
Before 4pm we arrived in Geita. Robert and Shabani dropped us at the Lenny Hotel which will be our home for the next 3 nights. We didn’t do much for the rest of the day other than sit in the bar with a drink and write emails and the blog, followed by dinner. Around 5pm there were some huge claps of thunder, the wind picked up and the rain arrived.......again!!
We had dinner in the hotel bar this evening which was good.
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