Bukoba #8: August Angst
August 1, 2001
The Bukoba Cyber Centre has been closed for over a month and will remain closed until further notice, reportedly because the "V-Set" is still in Dar es Salaam and it will take some money to get it here. I don't expect to send this message for at least a few weeks. I might even have to resort to snail mail (groan).
I had been worried that I would have no students and nothing to do, but a higher-up in the Kagera Regional Administrative Secretariat (RAS) saw my notice posted outside the CCM party building, and about 20 staff members are now coming for computer training. They want to learn computer basics (touch typing, windows, word processing, spreadsheets) in two weeks, so I have been teaching three hours every morning. They are more educated and experienced than the regular university students, all senior staff with advanced degrees or diplomas from Dar es Salaam, all good in English, and all older than me. My first foray into "corporate" training has generally gone well, though the classroom is poorly lit and dusty, the computers are slow and frustrating, and I was less organized than I would have liked to be, due to lack of time and difficult working conditions. On Saturday and Sunday mornings I have been teaching Java programming to four of my five programming students, but last week only two students came. Again I haven't had time or energy to prepare lessons properly. I think I will catch up on sleep and my workload will be easier after this week finishes, since I will be repeating the same course to other members of the RAS staff. I will teach advanced word processing and advanced spreadsheets in September. If I'm lucky I'll have a two-week break before school starts again in October. If we don't receive computers by October, I may have to advise the university to cancel its computer courses, as we have so few working computers and they are almost unusable even for computer basics. Maybe I could teach something else instead, and teach computers somewhere else in the community as a side project. Maybe I could get transferred to a nearby secondary school that one of my students said has about 30 computers that have not been used since they received them a few years ago because nobody at the school knows how to use them. I regret that I did not come up with a simple, concrete proposal in April to obtain even just 10 computers; we could have received them in time for the fall semester.
The university remains short of cash, though Cyprian (the bursar) paid us a little (about US$15) to help get by. I made my first bank withdrawal this week. As soon as we are paid for the computer courses (hopefully this week) I am teaching we will have a little more money. I hope to visit several local organisations that received donated computers. Isaya (the registrar) gave me a list of places, a few within walking distance but many in the surrounding area and some rather far, which we will visit when we have enough money to run the Land Cruiser again. (It is currently sitting in Professor Katoke's driveway.) I am also hoping to create a digital photo exhibit of some of the beautifully painted portraits on the walls of the dozens of local hair and fashion salons in town. I wish I knew which of them could cut my hair, as it is getting long, curly and wing-like and looks silly and unprofessional. I still haven't had time to work on my Swahili quiz program.
The weather has remained sunny and dry, though last week it was rather dark and rainy and my students had trouble reading their handouts because the room has no light. Lake flies were a bother a few days but not serious. I played tennis a third time and lost all 12 games to the best two players in town even with my glasses, but I think I could give them a serious challenge if I were back in reasonable shape and well-fed. I haven't had the time to exercise much other than the 10- to 15-minute walk to work and back, and I still need to solve the protein problem. Professor Katoke went to Arusha but fell ill from the cold weather there and has been to the hospital. I hope he will get better soon, as he is supposed to go to the US in a few days. Nicola returned to the UK last week because her visa ran out. She hopes to be able to return in September in time for the start of the new semester. She had some interesting research projects that would benefit the community, the students greatly valued her teaching contributions, and she was very easy-going and friendly, so we are all hoping she will return. Right now it seems that hope is the main thing keeping us all going, but if all our lecturers return and we get money, computers and e-mail access, things will brighten up considerably.