Olarash... Niambia kitu
Today we have a lot of meetings and took care of a lot of the administrative side of the project. We met with Jan and the contractor, Godwin, then went down to Olarash Primary and met with the headmaster and the major of Monduli, Mama Diwani. During the meeting we decided what would be most beneficial for Olarash on our budget be building a classroom rather than teacher quarters. While they also want teacher’s quarters, they are in dire need of another classroom, and it is a more pressing need than the former. We will make the final decision tomorrow after pricing everything out after negotiations.
Shortly after arriving we were greeted by all of the village elders who came up to meet us and walk through the school with us. My project is a very big deal in the village and they want to be involved. We had a tour of the school and looked at all of the classrooms and assessed their current condition. There are six classrooms, ten teachers, and 397 students. The classrooms were all very dirty and broken down. As far as the condition of the school, it is in less than perfect shape to say the least. Because it is a government school, t he rooms are painted in a faded light blue and yellow. Many of the windowpanes are broken, rampant cracks in the walls and ceilings that need to be repaired, and the floors are in dismal shape. When the school was build they did not start with a proper foundation, so when they laid the cement they did it over dirt without using rocks and sand. Because it was just dirt below, the cement did not take well and broke apart very quickly after it was put in. The floors now are patches of cement, overtaken by holes and mud.
Over the next month we are going to do what we can to repair the existing classrooms. This will include repairs to the floors and walls, as well as painting a new layer of paint on the walls and painting teacher aides. We will do each classroom differently depending on the grade (standard 1-7) and what they are learning. The students are on break until July 13th, so we are going to do what we can to get them all done before then, so we don’t disrupt any class time.
The classroom we are building will be a joint effort between the village and us. They will be collecting the rocks, sand, and water needed for the foundations, as well helping provide labor. It should be a very interesting learning experience on my end. I have built much of anything in my life, but I think it will go well anyway.
Another addition we have decided to undergo, is to start a night class for adults at the school to help them learn English. This basically only requires our time and no additional money. We will be helping out in both launching it and teaching while we are here. Once we leave the teachers will continue on. It is a good way to utilize what we have to offer, as well as utilize the school facility.
Later on today we went with Jan to pick up Ryan (her 9 yr old son) at Braeburn International School. We toured all of the classrooms and talked to some of the teachers to get some ideas for things we could do at Olarash. The contrast between private
Int’l schools and government schools is huge. The international schools are on the British system and about a hundred times nicer than my own elementary school in Boise. All the int’l schools have tennis courts, pools, amphitheaters, etc. There is a very drastic different between the rich and the poor in Tanzania, they are at two different extremes of the spectrum.
10 June 2009
Today we hammered out costs and budgets. We negotiated down the pricing for the repairs and the classroom. Jan says that this is the cheapest they have ever been able to build a classroom at CFT. A lot of this is because we are involving the community so much, which cuts down the costs of bother labor and resources. We also went and priced paints and classroom supplies.
The headmaster met me in Arusha with a list of all of the books and supplies they needed. We went to a couple bookstores and priced all of the books to see about what the cost would be and what the cheapest we could get them.
Nothing too exciting today. It was mostly just negotiations and crunching a lot of numbers.
12 June 2009
Today we started work at Olarash. Maiyan and I were standing in the back of one of the trucks driving down to the school. Pulling up to the school was as surreal as it gets, as the entire village was sitting outside waiting for us. It warms my heart to know how appreciative the village is of what we are doing.
Baltazary, one of the teachers, was there to greet us and brought us into the teacher’s office. Soon Godwin (the contractor), showed up and we began work. Maiyan and I spend most of our time working in the classrooms sanding down all of the walls and spackling all of the holes and cracks. We got three classrooms done today. We also broke up and carried out all of the cement in the two classrooms we are going to redo the floors in. There was not much cement left in either room anyway, it was mostly big holes and a lot of mud.
Meanwhile Godwin and his workers were leveling the ground for the foundation for the classroom we are building. Today we got all the stakes in and strings tied, so tomorrow we can start digging and lay the rocks.
Three of the teachers (Emmy, Annett, and Baltazary) had lunch with us and gave us black tea, fried maize, and biscuts. It was very good, and we got to talk to them a little more about the school and the community. They were very receptive to us, and a very glad for us to be there. It makes me very happy knowing that, because I was very worried about how they would react to us. After lunch Annett invited us into her Standard 7 class who were having their English lesson. They all introduced themselves to us and we told them a little bit about what we are doing. Annett asked us if we would come in and help teach English while we are here, and of course our answer was yes. The Standard 7 class is working through the break so they have more time to prepare for their final examinations. It is their last year in primary school, so in September they have a national exam in which they have to pass to go on to secondary school.
After our arrival the village members moved down to a big grassy place probably 200 feet from the school, and all sat in a big group. Throughout the day we say different people talking and all the village elders circling the group. I was talking to Baltazary and he said that they were having a village meeting, because they were having issues with a neighboring community. Basically they were arguing over water rights, the other village has been taking water from their pump. Anyway, they sit down as a community until they agree on a way to solve it. They were there from about 10am till 2pm. I was still standing outside the school talking to Baltazary when the meeting ending. They all got up and started walking. My first assumption was that they were going home, but soon I noticed that they were coming up towards the school. They were all collecting a large rock on their way up, which the rocks were for the foundation for the classroom. They all worked together as a community to gather the rocks, and maybe ten minutes later we had a huge pile of rocks; enough for the foundation. It is amazing to see how cooperative they were as a community, and how much they work together.
As the adults in the community were bringing up rocks, Olarash Standard 7 students were bringing up buckets of water. They started helping as soon as their class ended. After all of this, everyone started to disperse except for the teachers and students. The students continued to help. They all came into the classroom are watched us work. Then three of the boys helped me and Maiyan spackle. They were really sweet and helping us with out Kiswahili. They kept asking us to come to their home, which we are going to on Monday. We had our ride coming at four, so we couldn’t go today.
All in all it was a very projective day. We got a lot done, and started to get to know the people at the school and the community.
Shortly after arriving we were greeted by all of the village elders who came up to meet us and walk through the school with us. My project is a very big deal in the village and they want to be involved. We had a tour of the school and looked at all of the classrooms and assessed their current condition. There are six classrooms, ten teachers, and 397 students. The classrooms were all very dirty and broken down. As far as the condition of the school, it is in less than perfect shape to say the least. Because it is a government school, t he rooms are painted in a faded light blue and yellow. Many of the windowpanes are broken, rampant cracks in the walls and ceilings that need to be repaired, and the floors are in dismal shape. When the school was build they did not start with a proper foundation, so when they laid the cement they did it over dirt without using rocks and sand. Because it was just dirt below, the cement did not take well and broke apart very quickly after it was put in. The floors now are patches of cement, overtaken by holes and mud.
Over the next month we are going to do what we can to repair the existing classrooms. This will include repairs to the floors and walls, as well as painting a new layer of paint on the walls and painting teacher aides. We will do each classroom differently depending on the grade (standard 1-7) and what they are learning. The students are on break until July 13th, so we are going to do what we can to get them all done before then, so we don’t disrupt any class time.
The classroom we are building will be a joint effort between the village and us. They will be collecting the rocks, sand, and water needed for the foundations, as well helping provide labor. It should be a very interesting learning experience on my end. I have built much of anything in my life, but I think it will go well anyway.
Another addition we have decided to undergo, is to start a night class for adults at the school to help them learn English. This basically only requires our time and no additional money. We will be helping out in both launching it and teaching while we are here. Once we leave the teachers will continue on. It is a good way to utilize what we have to offer, as well as utilize the school facility.
Later on today we went with Jan to pick up Ryan (her 9 yr old son) at Braeburn International School. We toured all of the classrooms and talked to some of the teachers to get some ideas for things we could do at Olarash. The contrast between private
Int’l schools and government schools is huge. The international schools are on the British system and about a hundred times nicer than my own elementary school in Boise. All the int’l schools have tennis courts, pools, amphitheaters, etc. There is a very drastic different between the rich and the poor in Tanzania, they are at two different extremes of the spectrum.
10 June 2009
Today we hammered out costs and budgets. We negotiated down the pricing for the repairs and the classroom. Jan says that this is the cheapest they have ever been able to build a classroom at CFT. A lot of this is because we are involving the community so much, which cuts down the costs of bother labor and resources. We also went and priced paints and classroom supplies.
The headmaster met me in Arusha with a list of all of the books and supplies they needed. We went to a couple bookstores and priced all of the books to see about what the cost would be and what the cheapest we could get them.
Nothing too exciting today. It was mostly just negotiations and crunching a lot of numbers.
12 June 2009
Today we started work at Olarash. Maiyan and I were standing in the back of one of the trucks driving down to the school. Pulling up to the school was as surreal as it gets, as the entire village was sitting outside waiting for us. It warms my heart to know how appreciative the village is of what we are doing.
Baltazary, one of the teachers, was there to greet us and brought us into the teacher’s office. Soon Godwin (the contractor), showed up and we began work. Maiyan and I spend most of our time working in the classrooms sanding down all of the walls and spackling all of the holes and cracks. We got three classrooms done today. We also broke up and carried out all of the cement in the two classrooms we are going to redo the floors in. There was not much cement left in either room anyway, it was mostly big holes and a lot of mud.
Meanwhile Godwin and his workers were leveling the ground for the foundation for the classroom we are building. Today we got all the stakes in and strings tied, so tomorrow we can start digging and lay the rocks.
Three of the teachers (Emmy, Annett, and Baltazary) had lunch with us and gave us black tea, fried maize, and biscuts. It was very good, and we got to talk to them a little more about the school and the community. They were very receptive to us, and a very glad for us to be there. It makes me very happy knowing that, because I was very worried about how they would react to us. After lunch Annett invited us into her Standard 7 class who were having their English lesson. They all introduced themselves to us and we told them a little bit about what we are doing. Annett asked us if we would come in and help teach English while we are here, and of course our answer was yes. The Standard 7 class is working through the break so they have more time to prepare for their final examinations. It is their last year in primary school, so in September they have a national exam in which they have to pass to go on to secondary school.
After our arrival the village members moved down to a big grassy place probably 200 feet from the school, and all sat in a big group. Throughout the day we say different people talking and all the village elders circling the group. I was talking to Baltazary and he said that they were having a village meeting, because they were having issues with a neighboring community. Basically they were arguing over water rights, the other village has been taking water from their pump. Anyway, they sit down as a community until they agree on a way to solve it. They were there from about 10am till 2pm. I was still standing outside the school talking to Baltazary when the meeting ending. They all got up and started walking. My first assumption was that they were going home, but soon I noticed that they were coming up towards the school. They were all collecting a large rock on their way up, which the rocks were for the foundation for the classroom. They all worked together as a community to gather the rocks, and maybe ten minutes later we had a huge pile of rocks; enough for the foundation. It is amazing to see how cooperative they were as a community, and how much they work together.
As the adults in the community were bringing up rocks, Olarash Standard 7 students were bringing up buckets of water. They started helping as soon as their class ended. After all of this, everyone started to disperse except for the teachers and students. The students continued to help. They all came into the classroom are watched us work. Then three of the boys helped me and Maiyan spackle. They were really sweet and helping us with out Kiswahili. They kept asking us to come to their home, which we are going to on Monday. We had our ride coming at four, so we couldn’t go today.
All in all it was a very projective day. We got a lot done, and started to get to know the people at the school and the community.