Newbies, Workshops and 2 string guitars

In February I went off on another “jolly” to Dar es Salaam… you may think that I don’t actually do much work, but this trip was sort of work related!  

Being the VSO regional Representative for the mtwara and Lindi region, I had to attend a meeting with the reps from other areas and the VSO office, and also to meet the new intake of volunteers that had just arrived in Tanzania.  This intake was massive, with 32 new volunteers all needing to ask questions, get phone and Internet sorted, find out about Tanzania, and so I was on hand to meet, greet, chat, and assist them.  I remembered the day I got off the plane, pasty white skin, apprehensive, jetlagged and a bit shell shocked about what I had let myself in for and so I was happy to help the new volunteers settle in. 

 

I also had to run a workshop for a group of teachers who have been employed by the British Council to come to Tanzania for 2 years under the EQUIP-T project, which aims to improve the standard of teaching in primary and secondary schools.  Like the health system, the TZ education system is far from the standards we are used to in the UK.  The schools suffer from lack of equipment (no pens, paper, books let alone computers or interactive whiteboards), lack of staff, and  demotivated staff (Many teachers do not get paid on time, and paid so little that they have to  take a second job and thus often do not turn up to teach) and many other problems which results in a poor quality of teaching.  Although official figures state that most children do progress onto secondary school, the number actually finishing secondary school is low as children drop out due to financial or familial problems (children are often needed to help on the family shamba- farm).

My workshop was an interactive question and answer session about “living in rural Tanzania” – a subject that I’m getting pretty good at having been in rural TZ for 8 months!  The teachers were a mix of ages, but all had a wealth of experience teaching abroad though maybe not in the conditions they may face here.  I think I managed to answer most of their questions and belay some of their worries, though doubtless I caused a few more!

So after a busy week of sharing my skills, it was time for a break!! Louise and I hopped on the ferry to Zanzibar to see the Sauti za Busara music festival (link: www.busaramusic.org/  ). 

 Sauti is a 3 day festival held inside the old fort in stone town with a lineup of bands from all over Africa including Tanzania, Zanzibar,  Kenya, Mali, Ghana and Burkina Faso . 

 

 As we have Tanzanian resident permit, the tickets were cheap and we took advantage of the VSO community by staying with another VSO volunteer, the lovely Kelly in her apartment just outside stone town. 

Atonga Zimba and his 2 strings

 

There was some amazing music performed by some very talented musicians, some of the highlights for me were Atonga Zimba from Ghana with his 2 stringed guitar, Khaira Arby from Mali with her powerful voice, and Makoomba from Zimbabwe.

Shiny gold waistcoats and these Mzee had all the moves!!

As well as great music there was also some great costumes and traditional dress and some amazing dancing, which really proved the point that Africans have got rhythm as well as style!

Sheik Lo.. .(awesome outfits)

Even the Bass Player was dancing!

view of the old fort from a neighbouring roof top

 The music went on until the early hours of the morning so we didn’t get to bed until about 3am each morning - which is the latest I have stayed up since I arrived in Africa!!

crazy french-malinese keyboard player fiddling with his MiniMoog!

Khaira Arby

Louise enjoying a refresher

 

In the daytimes we enjoyed the delights of Stone town, which I have already talked about in this blog so will spare you the details of the fantastic food, amazing views from the rooftops, picturesque narrow lanes, laid back atmosphere and scorching heat!

It's a hard life being a volunteer !!!