Subject: Bukoba #17: March meanderings
Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2002
Avenues of technological communication are reopening for me. After nine months of waiting, the Bukoba Cyber Centre now has restored full Internet access, so I can update my web site and access my Yahoo account, and I will probably not be using my ELCT e-mail account except for emergencies. I also found that I was unable to dial long distance or cell phones because my phone is password protected, so I should be able to get that fixed.
The opening date of the University has been postponed at least until June. It was a big disappointment for the students and I would much rather have been teaching, but it will give us more time to properly prepare facilities, computers and curricula, recruit faculty and staff, etc. I have to be very patient, hopeful and self-motivated but have no excuse for not being busy. Computers for Africa has indicated that they will return in June and hope to bring about 40 used computers for the university and community, and I have been putting together a list of requested equipment.
I finished teaching 45 hours of computer basics and 15 hours of intermediate Word training for the senior staff at the Bukoba District Council. It was tiring for me and too chaotic for my orderly Dutch boss who was a student in the intermediate Word class, but all the participants learned something and they were generally satisified. I am not teaching this week or next because of Easter holidays but will probably continue in word processing and spreadsheets in two weeks.
My three-day trip to Kampala was short but sweet. We visited the computer facilities of the Computer Science department and Business School of Makerere University, the Computer Science Department of Kampala International University, the ApTech computer training centre, and Kibuli Secondary School. All had networked computer labs, most had fast Internet connections, and yet most had tuition comparable to the University of Bukoba's if not cheaper. I was pleased and a bit amused that our rag-tag delegation was given such a warm welcome by such wealthy and prestigious institutions. We also went to four computer shops, two bookshops and a cyber cafe, where again prices were cheaper than Tanzania. I posted a letter that Professor Katoke wrote to Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni asking for 40 million shillings for computer equipment. Museveni, Professor Katoke's friend and former colleague at the University of Dar es Salaam, took refuge in Katoke's home town of Karagwe during the 1970s Kagera war that ousted Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
The trip to Kampala would not have been possible without my two students Amin and Dawooda who organised it, Amin's friend Yacoubou who spoke very little English but welcomed us to his house, and his friend Timim Abed, a big, charismatic, trilingual student at Makerere University who drove us around town for two days in his car. Kampala is a bustling, lively city, much more pleasant and probably more developed than Dar es Salaam (at least in IT) though perhaps smaller and not without the problems of poverty and overcrowding of any African metropolis. I found it difficult to get my bearings because the roads wind up, down and around the hills like piles of spaghetti. The traffic was more than a bit hair-raising, especially with Timim's continual cellphone calls and his aggressive style of driving which frequently produced heated arguments with drivers of vehicles of many sorts. Few people spoke Swahili but many spoke English. The Tawfiq bus to Kampala was relatively quick and painless (six hours) but the return trip took nine hours in three different vehicles of progressively worse condition and overcrowding (20 people in the last minivan). We barely made it up the last hill before the descent to Bukoba, and I was very glad the driver had decided not to take on the extra 100 kg sack of maize. We spent more than half the trip in vehicles and I spent two months' salary in three days on computer books and equipment, but it was enormously educational for all five of us. I have a chance to return to Kampala this weekend for an Easter holiday with some of the other volunteers, but I don't know if I want to return so soon and risk so quickly changing the positive impression I have of Kampala.
The rainy season has definitely started. Every morning there is a heavy downpour, but by late afternoon it is sunny. I have some difficulties crossing the swampy area between the lake and the airport during my daily walk. I played tennis once but the next day I was a useless case of aches and blisters. I'll probably go for more punishment on Friday.