Technology Troubles in Tanga

Tanga 4-H Technology Training

I spent most of this week in Tanga (eastern Tanzania right by the ocean) with the Tanzania 4-H. Many universities are interested in doing research in Tanzania – especially with agriculture. One university took the approach to put information into the hands of 4-H district advisors through the internet. This is actually a pretty cool project and when it gets fully up and going, I think it will get some good results. I was hired by them to present the information on this project to the district 4-H advisors- about 30 Tanzanians. My tools to present were the internet, a PowerPoint which would be shown up on the wall through a projector. Now, anyone who does presentations on a regular basis knows that if something can go wrong with technology, it likely will. Well, true to many of your predictions, it did! That particular morning (and frankly the rest of the week), the electricity and internet kept going in and out. So, I would show a few slides, the power would go out. I show a few more slides, the power would go out. Ahhh! Thankfully the group was really patient. Plus, they were really excited about the concept of the web-page where they could get information on starting 4-H projects, etc… We also set up GMAIL accounts together. So, overall I think the training was a success. But, it's a good reminder of the realities facing this country.

A Nice Welcome Home

After being absent for most of the week, the students at Orkeeswa were very welcoming to me upon my return. This is one of many reasons why I like these kids! "Teacher, welcome back." "Teacher, we miss you in biology and agriculture…no one was there to teach us." I suppose it could just be flattery or something along those lines. But, our kids just seem to have a genuineness about them. I guess that's part of why I like working with them so much.

Girls Basketball in Moshi

Yesterday we did the 2 ½ hour drive to Moshi for a girl's basketball tournament. The girls played really well winning all but one game. Plus, when they did win it was by a really large margin! It is fun being with them because of the new experiences they are having. For instance, when you sit in a car for 2 ½ hours and you aren't used to it…you vomit! At least two girls had that experience anyway. They like to sing at the top of their lungs too! They usually sing the same 4-5 songs over and over again…mainly because they can never remember all of the words. It was, however, a little distracting as I was trying to navigate the narrow, dangerous roads. I'm sure anyone who has traveled with students can appreciate what I'm talking about.

Frightening Trip Home in the Dark

Last night we dropped the girls off at their homes because it was dark. I did not know how much fuel we had in the tank (which has been an issue lately…we've run out of gas twice in the past week…dumb volunteers…why don't you just put fuel in the darn thing!) and getting a flat tire on these thorns is always a concern! Plus, the headlights are pretty dim on the Land Rover. So, needless to say, we were set up nicely for an adventure. The last girl we dropped off lives way out in the bush. We pulled off from the "main road" onto what we thought was her driveway, only to discover it was nothing but huge rocks, thorns and washouts. We backtracked, drove down the main road some more, and made another attempt. Just as we were about to back track again, we noticed a Maasai woman waving her hands. It was a member of the students family, although the headlights were so dim she couldn't make out who it was. We followed her as she literally ran in front of us to show us the path. After we unloaded the last girl we headed for home. Unfortunately, we still couldn't find the right path. Once again, just as we were about to get REALLY stuck, a couple of Maasai warriors, including one of our students arrived to help. And again, they ran in front of us to show us the way. It began with four. Then, a couple more arrived to make six. Pretty soon, we had at least a dozen Maasai from this family, including children and that same mama, running in front of us in the headlight to show us the path. At one point, I had to "gun it" to make it up a steep hill. The mama thought I was going to run her over and dove off the road – hitting someone else on the way. Oh, those times you long for a camera! We finally found the main road and made it back to our home last night relatively unscathed.

Back to Teaching!

First Week Back

My apologies for taking SO long to update the BLOG! Last Monday was the first day back to teaching at Orkeeswa secondary. Needless to say, it's been busy. We have many new faces! We lost four volunteers (don't worry...their term was just up!) and one local teacher. I'm still teaching biology and agriculture in three different forms (grades). So, that means I step in front of a class 18 times/week. I'm also the school nurse. No cracking jokes about that one please... I take my responsibilities (and my thermometer) very seriously. I'll get to Lisa's responsibilities in a minute.

The students were excited, for the most part, to be back. I mean it's still school! But the relationship these guys have with each other and the staff is really unique. They are highly motivated to be there and be "good students" so it creates a good culture to want to return to.

Lisa is Teaching English!

In addition to being the "after school activities coordinator" and "office manager" and being married to me (full time job too), Lisa is teaching English! She's going to be great...but she's never taught secondary students....doesn't have a background in English as a subject (besides speaking it like a champ) (she was an ag-econ major) (but don't ask her about ag-econ either!) That being said, she's already done really well in her classes, especially Form 1 who she was working with last fall. Let's all pause for a moment and reflect on how we treated our high school English teacher and then feel remorseful for the things we did to them. Then, let's pray for Lisa. And me too. Well...all teachers all over now that I think about it! We need it!

Helping 4-H in Tanga

Well, after all that praying, you're really going to hate this. I'm not teaching this week. I'm hanging out by the beach in Tanga, Tanzania. The Tanzania 4-H is partnering with Ohio State University and the University of Wisconsin for some development projects. Somehow I tricked them into letting me be the presenter here for a part of the program. I'm talking about a website that 4-H advisors can go to to access content which they might use to teach 4-H members and also to discuss topics/issues. It's a cool tool. Hopefully the training goes well tomorrow too. Well, if nothing else I guess I got to hang out in beautiful Tanga for a few days while everyone back home was teaching away!

The past two weeks in Uganda have been awesome!

For the past two weeks Lisa and I have been traveling across Uganda. This place is incredible! It is aptly dubbed "The Pearl of Africa". We have seen some beautiful country and had a lot of adventures. We'll try to summarize an exhausting and wonderful past two weeks. Lisa should be putting pictures up soon on Facebook, so stay posted. There's some good ones!

Midnight Ride across Lake Victoria

We left our friends Rich and Carli in Mwanza to take an all-night ferry ride across Lake Victoria. I didn't sleep most of the night even though the quarters were adequate. It was hot, noisy and every noise I heard I was sure was a burglar coming in! Nevertheless, it was an interesting way to travel.

Lake Bunyonyi

Our first stop was to beautiful and peaceful Lake Bunyoni. This place was surrounded by steep terraced hills. The place we stayed was right on the water. And, good news, they also had wood dugout canoes for rent. So, of course we tried our hand at this form of transport (still common amongst the local folks). Bummer, I left our passports in my shorts pocket! I was so worried about tipping over, we only canoed for about ½ an hour! What a sissy I am!

Climbing Mt. Sabyinyo- 3669 m tall

After the relaxation of Lake Bunyoni, we tried our extinct volcano climbing skills on Mt. Sabyinyo in southwest Uganda. This consisted of climbing up three peaks, on rickety (often broken) tree ladders, in the rain! We slogged through the mud in our sandals doing our best to keep up with our rifle packing guide. Every now and then the clouds would clear and you could see beautiful views of Rwanda and the Congo. Then, the rain would start again and the view would be reduced to about 10 feet or so. When we finally reached the summit, we were frozen and wet, but happy to be standing in three countries at once – Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. All in all, we hiked about 9 miles and did a 1200 meter ascent – sometimes straight up. To put it plainly, it kicked our butts! But, the views and personal challenge made it worthwhile.

Hiking in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest

This is easily the highlight of the trip for me. We hiked through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Its name is well deserved – you couldn't see more than 50 feet into the jungle because the foliage was so dense! You could pay $500 to track gorillas here (one of two places in the world…the other was where we did the hiking the day before). But, we decided that was too much money. We instead decided to hike through the forest and just see the jungle and whatever animals we could – about 12 miles. We hired a porter and began. The jungle was intense! We had a good path the whole way. However, I just can't describe how beautiful/wild/strange the plant life was surrounding us.

Bad Hotel Experience with a Twist

We stayed in some bad hotels on this trip – most tolerable enough for the price. But, the night before we left for Kampala, we stayed in a really bad hotel. We got overcharged for it, food was bad, really bad bathroom, etc… Then, the owner (and I swear the whole town) decided to have a party just outside our room most of the night. Needless to say, it wasn't a pleasant stay. The next morning, the owner had our breakfast prepared only for Lisa to discover the milk was sour. As we were sitting there (around 6 am after no sleep), the owner asked us to contribute to her political campaign! After all we had been through, we politely declined.

Modern Life in Kampala

From southwest Uganda we took a bus to Kampala, Uganda's capital city. We have been living in Monduli now for nearly 5 months. When we arrived in Kampala (1.5 million people) our eyes nearly popped out of our heads! It was very modern, clean and overall inviting! We had brewed coffee (not the instant I usually have to drink), went to a shopping mall (bought a cook book!), went to two movies, saw a museum and a cultural center. Let's just say that Lisa's not really a city/shopping person. But, give her five months of the relative sensory deprivation of Monduli, and she was all about it! We really enjoyed Kampala.

Rhino Sanctuary

From Kampala, we headed north. Along the way was the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. It was a bit of a let-down. They had reintroduced nine white rhinos to the area. We did get to walk up to them (apparently it's OK to do this with white rhinos – black rhinos and we would have been toast). After watching only three of the rhinos rest under the tree for about 20 minutes, we were pretty well set and ready to head back. I don't really know what I was expecting – maybe them to charge at us or something cool like that. Oh well, it was cool to see this species, which was nearly hunted to extinction, slowly making a come-back.

Murchison Falls

North of the rhino sanctuary was a very cool place – Murchison Falls. These falls are formed from the Nile rushing through a narrow gap in the rocks. We took a boat up the Nile past crocodiles, hippos, elephants, monkeys and wart hogs. At the base of the fall, we hiked about an hour to the top of the falls. The force of the water was cool. Plus, the trail was covered in a sort of mica rock which made it look like glitter. Besides being really hot and humid, it was a cool day. It was a humbling experience to stand next to something so powerful.

Rafting the Nile in Jinja

Our final adventure was white water rafting the Nile River in Jinja. We went down class five rapids. In case you don't know – which we really didn't – the biggest is class six! We went down a few class threes and fours – spooky stuff. Then, came one class five named Silverback. About ½ way through the rapid our raft tipped over and all six of us riding it fell out. We all went way under the water. I swallowed a lot of water and it took what seemed like forever to reach the surface. I was coughing and spitting out water when I finally came up. Ironically enough, Lisa, who is quite afraid of water, was way less panicked than I was! She told me later she was just thinking "well this sucks." We kicked and struggled our way to the safety raft and then finally back to our original raft. Overall we went down three class five rapids – one with a 15 foot drop! Gladly, we only tipped over the once (in Silverback). It was one of the scariest things I have ever done, even though I've been rafting several times before. What a great end to the trip!

Heading back to Monduli

Now, we are in Jinja just waiting to take a 16 hour bus ride back to Arusha and then back to Monduli. We are so thankful for these experiences and seeing some of God's wild creation. We'll have about a week to get ready and then teaching resumes.