Morogoro2010

Well my first attempt at a blog has proved a dismal failure as I lost everything I wrote last week! So here we go again and hopefully I will do better this time.
So Morogoro 2010 started with 20 volunteers (18 students + Mary[co-project leader] and myself) on an early morning flight from Dublin on Sat July 19th. We flew to Amsterdam and onwards to Dar es Salaam with a very short stop at kilimanjaro International but no chance of spotting Kili as it was night. Robert from TanzED - UCDVO's Tanzanian partners - met us and before long we were enroute to Hotel Rombo in Dar where we stayed the night. We enjoyed a drink and some snacks even though it was close to midnight at that stage! We were on the road to Morogoro by 10am next morning, all of us anxious to see our home for the next month.
Morogoro is described as the University town of Tanzania as it has 4 universities located here, including a branch of Open University.
We are staying at CCT - a Christian Training Centre a few km outside the town. The rooms are located in little bungalows around the centre. Mary and I have single rooms which is pure luxury. They are very spartan but quite adequate and we even have hot water which we share with any of the others needing a hot shower. So we always have some takers!
We settled in quickly and that evening went to a restaurant around the corner which has become quite popular not least because they have a big screen showing the World Cup!
Monday morning Robert had arranged that the CCT bus would take us on a tour of all the schools. We started with Mlimani Primary school where the welcome was incredible. Although it is winter holiday time here until either July 5th/12th (depending on when they took exams), they had a big group of students in to welcome us in song. A student met Mary and I at the entrance and tied kerchiefs around our necks. We then proceeded to the formal cutting of the ribbon at the Computer room, Mary and I again sharing the scissors! Having admired the room we returned to listen to more singing and some speeches from the principal, the counsellor of the Ward in which this school is located (who happens to be the deputy mayor in Morogoro also) and a representative from the Parents Council. I added my few words and after the inevitable refreshments and some fun with the kids we headed for the other schools where the reception was somewhat more modest but welcoming to a degree that was almost embarrassing. By day's end we had imbibed a lot of tea along the way but were left with an extremely good feeling that IT skills are most definitely welcomed by the teaching staff in all the schools and the addition of a computer lab in each school a real advantage to both students and teachers.
Tuesday July 22nd was D-Day for collecting computers from TanzED where they have been stored since their arrival from Dar Es Salaam Port. Robert had booked a lorry and very quickly we set up a human chain to move the computers from office to truck. Then it was off to the first school to drop off our precious cargo and the group of students designated to that school. Each school has a UCDVO "techie" who took technical training with CAMARA in Dublin before departure and are quite skilled in getting the computers up and running. We have one particularly skilled techie who can solve most problems so he has been great at helping out the other schools if there is a serious problem. By the end of Tuesday all the computers had been delivered and most of the rooms actually looked like computer labs with everything unpacked and ready to go for teaching next day. In fact some of the teachers even tried their hand at assembly with us!
Wednesday saw the first real day of training for the teachers and provided our students with an idea of the skillset in the various groups they were working with. I went to Kihonda Secondary School (one of the schools UCDVO worked in last year) also on that day to meet the contractor who had been chosen by the school to help us build a basketball court there. The school had agreed with Robert earlier in the year that this would be great facility to have for their students. Kihonda is a few km off the main road so its about 9km from our home base.
This will have to be continued as I'm running out of time!