Mbugani and Ziwani Primary Schools

 Today we were visiting 2 schools that we are already supporting. Hamisi was again accompanying us and so we had arranged to meet him in town at 9am.

The first school that we visited was Mbugani Primary School, which is located in Geita town only about 10 minutes from our hotel. We have supported this school since 2019 and at present they have 9 computers, 1 printer and 1 projector, however 1 of the computers is not working. Hamisi has tried to repair it several times but it seems that it is a problem with the motherboard, so today we are replacing the CPU for that computer and loaning them another full computer set.

We arrived about 9.15 and are met by Elkana the ICT teacher who has worked with us on the project ever since our first visit to the school. He takes us to the Head Teacher’s office where she is waiting for us along with the chair of the School Board. We have met both of them before on our numerous visits to the school so there is no need for lengthy introductions. The Head Teacher explains to us that a new Primary school has been built close by so some children have moved there so the number of children at the school has now dropped to about 1800. They are all very happy to hear that they will be receiving some new computer equipment and so the Loan Contracts are quickly signed.

We then visit the computer room to check everything is ok and are pleased to see that there are now a few more electric sockets. I also notice the desks they have for the computers which look great. Everything seems in good order.

We then start walking back to the Staff Room when we are told that there is a parent’s meeting in progress and would we like to go and say Hi. The meeting was for parents of children in Standard 4 who will be taking their National Exams later in the year. I was impressed by the turn out considering it was in the middle of the day. It was lovely to meet the parents, we obviously meet a lot of the children but it’s rare to see that number of parents.

We say goodbye to the parents and move to the Staff Room where a large number of teachers are gathered. The Head Teacher makes some introductions and we both get a chance to say something. We are all the served sodas and nuts and Robert explains to the teachers about the new computer equipment. Elkana then gives a brief update on the computers.

We then hand over the computer equipment and the teachers celebrate with a bit of dancing and saying cheers.

After this we visit a few classrooms including Pre-Primary who are just about to go home as they only do a short morning in school, Standard 1 who have quite a few albino children from the Special Needs Unit and Standard 5 who seem pleased to see us and engage with us.

It’s now 10.45 and time for us to leave as it is quite a long drive to Ziwani Primary school.

The drive is mainly along a compacted dirt road which is pretty uneventful until the last 15 minutes when we meet some workers who appear to be regrading the road. However at one point they seem to have completely blocked the road with all their piles of dirt and a lorry which seems to have broken down, Robert and Aaron both get out of the car to assess the situation. The guys seem to keep on shovelling the dirt and in the end Aaron thinks he can get past. Luckily he manages this ok and we are on our way again.

We arrive at Ziwani Primary School at about midday. This school is located in Nyarugusu Ward in Geita Region. They have nearly 2000 pupils and 19 teachers. At present they have 5 computers and a printer.

We are met by the Head Teacher who we know from previous visits. He takes us to his office where we explain that today we are giving them a projector, a laptop and another desktop computer. He is obviously very pleased about this.

We then go and have a look at the computer room. This has been a partitioned off section of a larger room and whilst it has worked ok as a computer room the walls and floor have always looked in poor condition and it is now too small to accommodate any more computers.

So a while ago I had suggested that the school make some improvements. The Head Teacher had therefore approached the school committee and some stake holders to help fund this and I am pleased to say that work has now started on this. The partition has been removed as the whole room will now be used for the computers and the floor is being levelled and ready for floor tiles. The Head Teacher said he had hoped to have this all done before our visit but he sadly lost his wife recently so hadn’t been around to sort this out. We completely understood and were just happy to see the work had now started.

On leaving the computer room we are met by a group of children all singing and dancing to welcome us.

Because the computer room is now temporarily out of use the computers have been moved to the staff room. Here we are joined by other teachers, members of the school board, the village chair and vice chair as well as a local councillor. We have the usual speeches thanking us for our support followed by the handing over of the equipment. However we agreed with the Head Teacher that they could have the laptop and projector now but that Hamisi would keep the computer at his office until the work on the computer lab was complete.

After this we step outside and stop and chat with a few of the children.

The Head Teacher then tells us its time to go to a local hotel just round the corner for lunch. When we arrive a girl comes and takes our orders. While we wait for the food Robert and I take the opportunity to talk to the Head Teacher and Ben, the teacher who writes the computer reports, about how they can improve these and make them more interesting.

Then after we have been waiting about half an hour the girl comes back and says it will be a very long wait for food as the chef is not there at the moment…..we leave!!! We now go to a different hotel and again order some food (having checked they have a chef!). The food does still take about an hour to arrive (not untypical in Tanzania) but we have some drinks while we wait.

I had intended to go back to the school after lunch to take some photos of the children in the classrooms but by this time it is now 3.45pm and school is finished. So we say our goodbyes and leave.

Of course 15 minutes down the road we come across the same guys working on the road only now the situation seems a lot worse and it is even more difficult to get past. The truck is still stuck there, with traffic queued the far side unable to get past and the area around the truck now extremely rutted and very muddy. Robert and Aaron both get out of the car to have a closer look.

We wait for about 20 minutes and one car gets past so then Aaron decides to give it a go. I have to say it was not easy and the car did slip and slide a lot but he managed to control it and to Robert’s relief we got passed with no damage to the car. It was good though that we got past then as a few minutes later in started to rain really heavily so that would have made the whole situation even worse.

Luckily the rest of the drive back to Geita is uneventful. When we get back to our room we find a friend waiting for us.

As we had a very late lunch we arrange to meet Robert a bit later than usual for dinner. He wants to go to a place that has been recommended to him called “Big Mike’s” ! It’s not far away but it takes a little while to find it as the directions he received are a bit vague. However when we do find it the place is actually quite nice. We order sizzling fish and vegetable rice and its is all good. So all in all, despite the few issues we have had it’s been a good day.