Today we are visiting 2 schools, both quite a distance from Geita so Robert said we should make an early start.
Breakfast is pretty Tanzanian but good. I had fish, spaghetti, potatoes and beans. Pete had similar but with the addition of some liver. For those of you who know me well, you will know that I would definitely avoid that !!
Robert was supposed to pick us up at 8 but didn’t arrive til 8.30 due to breakfast not being ready in his hotel 🙄. Geita is pretty busy this morning.
The first school we are visiting is Nyakagomba PrimarySchool which is a new school for us. We pick up Hamisi at the junction where we turn off the main road and reach the school by about 9.30.
On arrival we are met by the Academic Teacher who shows us around the school. They have 1211 pupils and 14 teachers.
And then we are shown the computer room. Several years ago we let each of the ACTT agents choose one school that had done computer training, to receive a computer. Hamisi chose this school. It is good to see that it is covered to protect it from the dust when not is use. The teacher tells us that 120 of the children have learnt some basic IT skills from using this one computer. 10 out of the 14 teachers at the school attended the computer training course run by Hamisi and now another 3 have learnt using this computer.
We are also shown some old school building built by some missionaries when the school first opened in 1942. These are no longer in use. Following the Arusha Declaration in 1967 the school became owned by the government.
Some lessons are taking place outside. We spend a bit of time with the Pre Primary (Kindergarten) class who are practising writing letters in the sandy soil where they are sitting.
We then meet up with the Head Teacher and are taken to a large room where teachers, the Chair and Vice Chair of the School Committee, the Ward Education Officer, Members of the local CCM party, The Village Executive Officer, Members of the Parents Committee, the District Executive Officer (an important man 😀) and quite a few others plus 5 pupils from Standard 7 are gathered. It really is a large event.
As with all these visits everyone introduces themselves and there are a lot of speeches.
As usual Robert then explains about our project, the Loan Contract and tells everyone that the school will be receiving 3 computers and a printer. Of course this leads to more speeches of thanks and once the contract is signed, we hand over the equipment.
The computers and printer are then all moved to the computer room and Hamisi sets them up and checks they are all working. The school will obviously need to sort out some more tables and chairs for the room.
After this we and the other guests are served a lunch of soup, chapatis and chai (a ginger flavoured tea). Hand washing in most local restaurants and in the schools or peoples homes is usually done with a jug of hot water, soap and a bowl. Loveness and Adventina were 2 of the girls helping with this.
After lunch it was time to leave as we had another school to visit this afternoon. It had been a lovely morning and I am sure the school will perform well.
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