Tempus fugit

Coming Monday I’ll have been here for exactly one month. I really can’t believe it, it went so fast! That I’ll be here for three more months doesn’t seem like such a long time now.

Last weekend I got to go on safari, together with a two students and two other teachers. It was what they call Eight-Eight, which stands for the eighth of August. It’s when people show their harvest, or any of their other work to anyone that’s interested. The Mikumi National Park had a special offer, so we decided to go there. Of course we couldn’t expect much luxury – the transport vehicle was a somewhat large van that seated some 40 people (African style) and the guide wasn’t always there. But it was still great to see the wildlife – elephants, giraffes, zebras, hippos, baboons, impalas and even quite a few crocodiles. Unfortunately we didn’t see a lion or any other big cat, in this season you can only see them at dawn or dusk and we were there in broad daylight. But it was still very nice, I was especially impressed by the number of animals that were there.

I also got to go to the Maasai, again! The settlements we went to were closer by than the one of last week, but since most of the road was sandy and generally very poor it took us much longer to get there. It was about 45 km, and it took us two and a half hours. All of it was bush land too, there are no shops or anything at that road. So if those people want anything they can’t find in the bush, they have to bike or walk those 45 km, twice... That’s about 18 hours on foot! But I suppose they chose that kind of life.

Again we went there to encourage the people and to see if the schools are still alive. For one settlement that was so – they even got taught some math, which I found impressive. But the other school unfortunately wasn’t active. As with many things, money is the problem. Sometimes teachers volunteer, but most of the time they ask for a compensation for missed income. An allowance, if you will. And in that particular village, the parents didn’t want to pay for education. They don’t really see its importance. If there’s no money and no volunteers, the whole thing stops of course... Which is a shame.

That area is blessed with an actual river though, so people can have all the water they need. Unfortunately, upstream people use the water for irrigation, especially in the dry season of course. This causes the river to dry out for a few months every year. This means the people have to move elsewhere, leaving behind their school. This way a solution in agriculture causes a problem in education elsewhere. The Maasai could probably dig a well, but I somehow get the idea that these people secretly don’t want to settle. Most here seem to find that almost shameful, since it can bring so much good, but somewhere I do understand. You would lose a lot of freedom, being “stuck” in one place. They used to just go anywhere they want, live anywhere they found nice. Until they simply felt like moving on... At least, that’s how I imagine it to be. It’s a shame it doesn’t match with the rest of the world, and I understand that it can be quite a dilemma for them.

Meanwhile, our “chained down” life at the base is good. The English course continues, and is now quite hard for the students. They have a lot of distractions too, not in the least the temptation of secretly speaking Swahili, which isn’t allowed here, for their own benefit. But there seems to be progress, all students are now able to tell very long stories if they want to, be it in somewhat broken English. By the end of next week we’ll be half way through the course.

The first small steps for the computer school have been made, too. Asheri and I had a meeting of sorts today to see what is needed. I thought getting enough computers would be a challenge, as they are more expensive here than at home in the Netherlands. But just recently Asheri got in contact with someone who happens to really want to send us computers. That’s God at work... So now we have to get a good curriculum to teach, and we have to make the classroom ready. The space is there, but a lot of things need doing still. You can’t plug 16 computers into one socket, for instance. A voltage stabiliser is a good idea as well, apparently, since voltage peaks cause the office computer to break down every once in a while. And of course there’s no internet either. Luckily the Arusha base already has a computer school up and running, so they may well be able to help us to solve these practical issues. I have good hopes!