Subject: Bukoba #14: A new year in Bukoba
Date: Wednesday, January 9, 2002
Heri ya mwaka mpya! (Happy New Year!)
The Bukoba Cyber Centre has completely stopped its dial-in e-mail service until it can get its fast wireless/satellite server running. About a week ago they estimated it would be ready in two weeks, but then again they've been regularly promising to restore service soon since it stopped back in July. Luckily, though, the Lutheran bookstore now has an Internet cafe that I visited yesterday. They dial in to Mwanza (across the lake) via Africa Online and charge US$2.50 for 15 minutes (an hour of surfing would cost me ten hours' salary!) so I won't use it other than sending and receiving e-mail through my Yahoo address a few times a month. So I still have an excuse for writing mass e-mails. Even getting to my address book takes too long (and all addresses and messages were erased on my Hotmail account from being inaccessible so long), so I won't be able to send this to everyone I'd like to, and as usual with my Bukoba newsletters, feel free to forward this message.
The vice-chairman of the board of trustees, Professor Maliyamkono, said the university is not likely to open until April. I have not heard anything about the HEAC decision or any news of hiring new or previous expatriate lecturers. The vice-chancellor has apparently shifted his energies to Nigeria. Also, the Mr. Bakinikana, the registrar, who seemed to me to be doing more work than any of us here, is leaving at the end of January; I don't know how they'll replace him. He will help with maths and science teaching at a nearby teacher's college. (Assuming it is higher education, maybe I could apply there?)
However, it seems that things are starting to move at UoB. Construction on the new campus on the outskirts of town is progressing rapidly, the vice-chairman is in the process of securing housing nearby, and we expect to be supported financially by the Kagera regional and district governments as well as getting library and computer lab money from the Dutch DRDP and science lab money from the Canadian CIDA. I received a large salary payment and according to the university I have been given all my back pay (unlike the others). We are also due to receive a brand new Compaq computer, inkjet printer and two extra keyboards either Friday or Monday, and have already received a laser printer, photocopier and UPS. Soon I'll be using post-1995 computers regularly; which I haven't done since my hard disk failed in August. (The replacement is due to arrive from the US any day now.)
I am busy preparing questions for the final exam in Computer Maintenance on Sunday. Students still have not paid their tuition; I may have to resort to draconian measures. It has mostly been a theoretical course since I know relatively little of the practical side myself, but there is much potential for future versions of the course and the town has an enormous need for computer maintenance. Hasnain, the local PC technician, laughed at my students for calling themselves technicians, so I suggested to him that he teach the course instead of me (and I'd be the first to enrol), but he's no volunteer and for business reasons I don't think he wants to give away his secrets.
Teaching at a local secondary school now seems highly unlikely for me. Since I am working for the higher education ministry, a transfer to a secondary school would be virtually impossible. (I would need to have my work permit changed and return to the US and it could take months.) I could work part-time in a secondary school if the university would let me, but transportation would be a major problem (except for Bukoba Secondary School, which is near my house) and I could probably not make a year-long commitment to finish a school year. Exactly what I'll be doing is a bit uncertain, though I'm sure I'll find plenty, whether preparing a computer science curriculum and syllabi; teaching computer basics workshops in town; looking for a reputable and cheap computer supplier in Dar, Mwanza, Kampala or Europe (and/or donated computers and computer books to save us money); and/or miscellaneous computer maintenance and consulting.
Professor Katoke, the deputy vice-chancellor, is no longer my neighbour. He has suddenly moved to a donated house near the new campus, so the other half of my house is vacant. I don't know if or when I'll be moving; either very soon to a former lecturer house at Nyamukazi village near the lake to save the university money, or more likely, when the new lecturer houses are ready and they have hired other lecturers to share with. I still have a yard full of chickens (3 large and 5 small at last count), and I am giving them away since nobody has been feeding them properly lately and they eke out an independent living foraging in the yard and my rubbish tip. I let my domestic helper Mariana take two this morning, and a university student named Joyce will hopefully take the rest on Saturday.
Language training generally went well, and it was great seeing many of the other volunteers again. I am a bit behind the others because I don't have a close Kiswahili-speaking friend and I haven't had the motivation or made the effort to apply my learning and speak to people in Kiswahili, but I could still become conversant by the end of my stay here. I have typed in some more vocabulary for my Java quiz program, which is like the computer equivalent of flash cards (an older version which I made before I came is available on my web site). I have ambitious plans for a Java grammar program that can teach, translate and give quizzes in Kiswahili to vastly improve upon the one I did in Namibia for Oshikwanyama in Qbasic; it might be a good student group programming project.
A three-week break from computing and a decent mattress have greatly alleviated my back problem. I have bought a new, firmer mattress here in Bukoba, but it is still not a spring mattress (just foam), and the chairs at work are not ergonomic, so the problem has not yet been solved. I now have a refrigerator left by a departing volunteer, so I can buy and cook any food that's available and can have a more varied diet. Most of my protein sources are very fatty: eggs, whole milk, cheese, peanuts, and oily tuna and fish. (So I hereby resolve to get more exercise in 2002; walking isn't enough. I went jogging for the first time in two months yesterday.) I have bought raw meat and fish a few times but am too grossed out by it; in the US I'd buy it pre-packaged and frozen, and drop it in the pot untouched by human hands. Of course I could have eaten my chickens, but Mariana and I were loath to slaughter them (though when they woke me up this morning I dreamily muttered that I was going on a shooting spree >8-)
I considered language training to be my holiday, as it was very relaxing and I was eager to return to work by the end. It was nice to have a few days in the big city (Dar es Salaam), though I didn't buy as much computer stuff as I would have liked, as everything was closed for the Eid el fitr holiday. I returned to Bukoba on the 20th to find that most expatriates were on holiday, and it was sad to know that more friends have left Bukoba, including Marialena, Gwynnyd, Harald and Tine, and Dr. Niels, but in Bukoba I never have to be alone. I spent Christmas afternoon at Donald and Pulani's house. They have a great view of Lake Victoria, I enjoyed the luxurious food and friendly company, and as always, the weather was beautiful, sunny and comfortably warm. I received a Christmas card from VSO Canada with a photo of a river and bridge under grey skies surrounded by snow and ice. To those so near the North Pole, pole sana (so sorry)! Keep warm and have a wonderful 2002!