Bukoba #9: The End or the Beginning?
August 22, 2001
The Bukoba Cyber Centre is still closed, but at least two people I know have sent e-mail through ELCT (Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania), so I might be able to send this message soon, if my computer would stop thrashing the hard disk for no obvious reason. (A PIII-650 with 128K of RAM and a 10 MB hard disk seemed powerful to me a few months ago but I find it surprisingly limiting sometimes.)
The third group of RAS (Regional Administrative Secretariat) staff have started taking my computer basics workshop. The first group was the best, probably because one of the students was particularly friendly and upbeat. The second group was a bit of a disaster because they fell far behind due to low turnout the first two days, the death of an MP, the August 8 holiday, and electricity outages; I had to give classes Saturday and Sunday to make up some of the time, and even then they only received 8 of 10 days. I haven't been very enthusiastic about repeating the same course, and at times I am impatient with the slower learners. I am also concerned that only one of the 16 students is a woman, though I am expecting at least three women in the advanced classes starting in two weeks. Unfortunately our invoices will take almost a month to process, so the income I helped generate for the University will not arrive for awhile. I cancelled my weekend Java courses because I didn't have time to learn Java and prepare lessons and few of the students came each week because the uncertainty over how much they would pay and whether the course would count for university credit. Java was too slow on our ancient computers anyway, and the necessary browsers and documentation took up too much disk space. I helped with computers at the RAS office and at a training centre in town where one of my students works.
The university is more in debt than I had imagined, and its future continues to be uncertain. Because of the urgent financial situation, the university sent a fundraiser from the UK named Anna to assess the situation and raise funds. In the 12 days she spent in Bukoba, she accomplished a lot, including a detailed study of the university's finances and the funding and supervision of some work on the Kyanyi site. She is very knowledgeable, experienced and capable with building and financial matters. She is also brilliant, energetic, and friendly. She was kind to me, I enjoyed her company, and we became close friends in a short time. Unfortunately she had some unpleasant confrontations with a few people, partly because she is relatively new to Africa and did not receive any cultural orientation. She returned to the UK for a month to do some international fundraising for the university. Hopefully she has learned some patience from her brief experience here, and hopefully the university will welcome her back in mid-September to continue her work.
My VSO programme director is in the Kagera region this week and is scheduled to visit me and the university on Friday. I hope we will discuss many things, including the problems and uncertain future of both myself and the university. I visited Bukoba Secondary School to help with the headmaster's computer, and two people told me that the school needs another physics teacher, so maybe I could teach physics if the restart of the university is postponed for a few months.
The weather has remained sunny and dry apart from brief showers including one that left a stream of chocolate mud along the side of the main road. Virtually my only exercise is my walk down that road to work. In the past two weeks I didn't get a chance to work on my important long term goals such as the university website, prospectus, the IT curriculum, syllabi, equipment for the computer lab, etc., partly because I have been exhausted and sick with a sore and possibly infected throat, and partly because I was hosting two guests (Anna, and her friend Fiona who is trying to do some research on AIDS). Professor Katoke is also still suffering from a cough and related illness. Hor symptoms.) As usual, my back has been bothering me because of too much computing, lack of exercise and my foam mattress. I think I am finally getting enough protein, though I'm getting a little tired of daily powdered whole milk and sardines.
The weather has been much drier and sunnier, though it did rain about eight days in June, including good rains about three times. I bought a 1993 Macmillan atlas of Tanzania for $15 and saw that in the African tropics it generally rains in the summer and is dry in ocal shops. I met a number of people there, including a few of my students. Unfortunately my camera quit working as I was trying to get a short digital video of a giant rotating coffee pot, so I only have a few pictures of the exhibits. On Saturday a few of us went to the ELCT primary school, probably the best primary school in the area, with nice new classrooms and a beautiful view of the city and beaches below.