Tanzania 2015
Miss Jones Miss Brown
Friday 25th September 2015 Safari Day 1 After a long flight and checking into Keys Hotel, we had a day of rest and were ready for our first action-packed day… safari!
We had an early start and met our translator, John, and our driver Moses. We got in our very own jeep and headed off on the long drive to Tarangire National Park. Along the way we drove through many contrasting places, among them was the popular tourist town Arousha and many small villages, all under the beautiful setting of Kilimanjaro. As we got nearer to the National Park, we started to see members of the Maasai Tribe. There were lots of men and women walking along the roads, herding cattle, carrying baskets of food on their heads and collecting water, including small children. John told us that the Maasai will spend most of their time away from their home, herding and caring for their cattle and many of them will be boys no older than ten. We eventually arrived at the National Park we ate our packed lunch in the sunshine! From there we entered into Tarangire. It was in the middle of the dry season, so the landscape was quite baron and there was very little water. Our first stop was to one of the few watering holes, where we saw zebra, warthogs and giraffes. They were beautiful and graceful, completely oblivious to the jeeps driving by. Then our driver zoomed on and we spotted some elephants. These were much larger in real life than we expected! They came very close to our jeep- close enough for a selfie! After that, we had a call on the safari radio about a herd of zebra down in a crater. All of the jeeps were fitted with a radio so that they could communicate with each other across the park. We drove over to this particular site and just as we arrived, we were lucky enough to see a lioness pounce on the zebra. Fortunately, she wasn’t quick enough and the zebra bounded back up the hill, making a barrage of noise as they went! The lioness sulked back to her tree where she lay, waiting for her next opportunity. We continued to drive across the huge landscape and saw lots of other fantastic animals. A highlight for me was seeing a herd of elephants cross the nearly dry river bed, spraying muddy water over themselves whenever they could! The sun soon began to descend in the sky, and before we knew it, it was time to make the long drive back to the gate of the park and head towards our night’s accommodation. As we drove to ‘Nature Haven’, we reflected on all of the wonderful sights we had seen, and how different the animals seemed to be in a natural environment compared to being in captivity. After a steep climb up a mountain in the jeep, we arrived at our accommodation for the night. Hidden in the greenery of the mountain top, we stayed in a chalet, surrounded by birds and wildlife. We ate a lovely meal and headed for bed, tired after such an exciting day!
Saturday 26th September 2015 Safari Day 2 We woke up at 5.30am to catch the sunrise. It was stunning and we both felt privileged to experience it as the birds started to sing strange tunes around us. From there we had a big breakfast and after saying thank you and good bye to our hosts, we set off in the jeep to Ngorangora Crater. After a short drive, we arrived at the gate where there were lots of other jeeps, parked up ready to go in. John told us to keep the windows shut for the first part of entering because there were lots of cheeky monkeys who would help themselves to anything they could grab from inside the jeep! As we drove through, they were hanging in the trees and sitting on the sides of the road, watching to see if there was anything up for grabs! We carried on driving up to the top of the crater. We got out and the views were incredible. The landscape was so vast, it was hard to capture it in a photograph and it was amazing to think that there were so many animals living in it. We jumped back into the jeep and began the steep descent into the crater. On the way, we stopped in a Maasai camp. The Maasai use this as a way to make money to pay for water and materials so we gave them $50 and we were welcomed into the village. The men and women performed a welcome dance and we were asked to join in by being given traditional beaded necklaces and shown the dance. After this, we were shown around the different huts, all made from sticks and straw, bound together by cow and goat manure. An elder of the tribe took us into his home. There was a small fire in the middle and bed-like frames either side. He explained that the man would sleep by himself and the women and children in the other bed. This is because it is Maasai tradition that the men have more than one wife, meaning he can move around and stay in any of his houses. This Elder had 4 wives and 12 children! After this, he took us to the tribe’s Kindegarten (Reception) School. Once the children are 7, they go to a state school, but before that, the children learn in their tribe. We walked in and the children were practicing the alphabet. The teacher stood at the front with a stick, pointing to the letters and the children would shout out the letter name. They also did this with numbers and Swahili words. The children were tiny and all looked very unkept, but they were happy. They were fascinated with our skin, hair and clothes, and kept touching us. We joined in with their songs and said a sad goodbye to the children, wanting to stay and learn more about their culture. It was very interesting visiting the Maasai, however, we both felt that there were lots of conflicting issues such as gender equality and the practice of FGM. From this, we moved further down into the crater and started to spot some animals! First we say a hyena. It was walking across the road so we slowed down. It stopped, looked at us and carried on, just to lie down on a ditch next to the road. We carried on from this, soon to see a male lion sleeping by a rock. We watched carefully as two brave warthogs walked up to him… we waited in anticipation as the lion raised his head; he gave them one look of warning and they ran off and he returned to sleeping! We couldn’t believe it! After lots of animal spotting and sightseeing, we were ready for lunch, so we headed down to hippo lake, where we ate our lunch watching the hippos swim around in the water. From here, we headed around to a forested area, where we saw more exotic birds and zebras and then began the long climb up and out of the crater. As we reached the top, we were surprised with an elephant! It was wandering down the road and nothing was going to get in its way. It plodded along slowly as we waited and eventually could get past… Only in Tanzania! We settled back into our seats after all of the excitement and prepared for a long drive home to Moshi. The safari was an incredible experience and we both felt so lucky to have been able to do it, something that will be treasured in our memories forever.
Sunday 27th September 2015
Marangu Falls After a lie in and a refreshing breakfast, we went to meet John our translator. He had also been working with two other teachers from Cumbria who were out with Connecting Classrooms visiting their school for the first time, so he thought it would be good for us to meet and spend the day with them. We picked them up from their hotel and carried on up to the base of Kilimanjaro. We looked around and saw lots of people who were about to start their climb and people who had just finished (it was easy to tell who was who!) and he explained to use about all of the porters and guides who take you and your equipment up the mountain and set up camp for you every day. The porters went up the steeper and more direct route so that they can carry all of the equipment ready for you. Once we had finished looking around, John took us to Marangu Falls. We learnt about the traditions of the Chugga Tribe (people of the mountain) and even sampled some of their home-brewed banana beer! After a walk we went down to the base of the waterfall, having a cool off in the refreshing water, sitting underneath the falling water-pure bliss! After a quick dry and change, we went up, had some lunch and reflected with the other teachers about their experience so far and how it compared to home. After a lovely day, we returned back to the hotel where we sampled a Swahili omellete (chips in an omelette!) and prepared the resources and gifts we had brought for school the following morning.
Monday 28th September 2015 Day 1 at James Ole Millya School An early start for us as we waited to get picked up by John and our driver Honest at 7am. John explained that the school is in a rural area so there was a lack of road networks. We soon discovered this as we turned off a tarmac road and onto dirt tracks, very bumpy indeed! It took about 35 minutes to get to school and we travelled through villages and past lots of schools. One school we drove past had all the children outside, crouched down and the teacher walking around them. We asked John about what the children were doing and he said that they were receiving their punishments, which we then saw. The teacher started whipping children as she walked around and we were horrified. We spoke further to John about this and he said it is illegal, however, lots of teachers (especially older generation teachers) are still doing it and not being caught. We carried on and eventually arrived at James Ole Millya School. The school is bright and vibrant, made out of two long blocks. We were greeted by the head teacher Monika and were shown to the staff room. We were then greeted formally to all of the staff and taken outside for a welcome from the children. They performed songs to welcome us we introduced ourselves to them. The children then went into class and we designed our teaching timetable for the week and presented our gifts and resources to the staff. They were very pleased and grateful and couldn’t wait to start using them. Our first class for the day was Kindegarten. We walked into the classroom and it was lovely to see displays from Mr Lackenby and Miss McNally that they were still using and the creation of a book corner. We watched an English lesson, where the teacher had already started to use things we had brought to support and the children enjoyed this. The atmosphere was very different to our Reception. All of the children sat at desks in silence whilst the teacher talked and they repeated. They were invited up to the chalk board to move words and pictures around, but it was very formal and some of the children were not engaged.
From there, we went into Standard 1 (year 1) where, again, the children were sat at desks. At this point, the children were doing addition practically. They used bottle tops and in the middle one child was counting and adding them together. From this, we used buttons that we had brought and showed the teacher how, if they did it in pairs, there was a lot more engagement with the children and it was easier to assess. We also demonstrated the use of number lines and how this can also be used to add and subtract. Immediately, the children were more active and it was easy to assess to see who needed further support, something that we shared with the teacher. From Hill West, we had brought lots of P.E equipment, so every afternoon, we took out a different year group to set up a carousel of activities so that we could model to the teachers how they could use the equipment. The children don’t do formal P.E lessons, they have a games and outdoor activity session so we thought that this set up would work well. We did lots of shooting, throwing and catching and traditional games such as hot potato, which the children loved! The school’s playing ground is a big dust field with no shade and we definitely felt the heat. It didn’t bother the children and they carried on whilst Miss Brown and I took turns in the little shade we could find! Day 1 was an eye-opening experience and challenged some of my preconceptions of the school and education in Tanzania. We drove back to the hotel and spent the evening planning and making resources for the following day.
Tuesday 29th September 2015
Day 2 at James Ole Millya School Another early start for us and we were on the bumpy road to school again. We arrived and the children were doing their morning chores whilst the staff were having coffee and tea in the staff room. This felt very odd for us and we both felt uncomfortable sitting down whilst the children were cleaning and sorting out the classrooms. We went into Standard 2 first of all, where we had planned a times table session. We wanted to show the teachers how to make counting and times tables practical, so we used number cards, songs and fireball. It was hard to fit the times table song in Swahili, but with the help of our translation dictionary and our translator, we managed it! The children really enjoyed this and there was much more of a ‘buzz’ around the room than before. From there we went into Kindegarten and introduced them doubling. We drew butterflies on card and used buttons to put spots on (the same amount on each side). The children understood this quickly and we then moved onto to writing them as number sentences too on post-it notes so that they could stick them up on the board. We spoke to the teacher after the lesson about children we felt that had found it difficult and what would happen next, She couldn’t answer and just said that they carry on. This shocked us, as there was no formal tracking or assessment of the children until they do they final exams in Year 4 and Year 6. From here we ate lunch and then went outside for games with Standard 5. Again, the children loved the activities and this time we were more prepared for the sun!
Wednesday 30th September 2015 Day 3 at James Ole Millya School Today was our first day teaching in KS2. It is compulsory for the children to learn English and from looking through the children’s text books, we saw that they needed to learn about types of words (nouns, verbs etc.). We decided to focus on nouns, verbs and adjectives. We had created Y6 verbs, nouns, adjective cards and after a brief explanation, we asked the children to sort them into the correct groups. Once we had done that, we played some more games, using the terminology and then showed them how to structure sentences with verbs, nouns and adjectives. The children then wrote their own on post-it notes and shared them. We also asked the children to create their own cards and we made a word bank on the wall of nouns, verbs and adjectives so that they could refer to it in future. Monika, the head teacher came to observe this and she was really pleased with the use of resources and we gave her more ideas how to approach other different aspects of their English curriculum. Another highlight of this day was also an English lesson in Year 3, where we taught the children body parts through the song ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’. The children were very enthusiastic in their singing and picked up the words very quickly. We chose to use a song as a cross-curricular link, demonstrating the teachers how to get the learning out of the text book and incorporate other elements of learning. To assess, we then asked them to draw a body and add in the body parts themselves, again, showing the teacher how this is an easy assessment tool. Another interesting and busy day and we were on the way home along the dirt track, thinking and planning about what lessons we would do tomorrow.
Thursday 1st October 2015
Day 4 at James Ole Millya School We started off the day in upper KS2 again, working in Standard 5 today. We introduced animals in English using flash cards from the alphabet strip we had brought with us. The children picked this up very quickly and we moved on to adjectives and how we could describe the animals. We showed them how to construct basic sentences in English and the they wrote them on whiteboards to show and read to the class. The children really enjoyed this and were amazed by the whiteboards and how you could erase your work and write again! After this was kindergarten. We had brought over lots of role play and dressing up with us and we wanted to demonstrate to the teachers how to use this. We told the story of Sleeping Beauty, getting the children involved by dressing up and role-playing the story. They were so excited to see and use the outfits and it was lovely to see the children being children and having lots of fun and not sitting down at a desk. From there, we asked the children to draw and label the favourite part of the story. As you can expect, the boys drew the dragons and the girls drew the princess! After morning play, we were asked by Monika to deliver a training session for the staff. We had found lots of resources and equipment that the school had been given from us and from previous visits that looked untouched and we had voiced our concern in the week. Monika had explained that the staff didn’t understand how to use all of it so asked if we would do the session. We organised the cupboard and used a variety of equipment to show and demonstrate to the staff some of the ways in which they could use them. It surprised Miss Brown and I that they didn’t know lots of things that we would consider to be basic, such as what glitter is or how to use it. The staff really appreciated this and seemed much more positive about the equipment and gained a better understanding of how to use it.
Friday 2nd October Day 5 at James Ole Millya School Today was our last day at James Ole Millya and we couldn’t believe how fast it had gone! We arrived at school a little later today because we made some stops on the way. First was a trip to a charity that our translator, John, helps to support. It supports young girls and women who have run away from home due to being forced into female genital mutilation (something that is common in the Maasai tribes). The charity gives the girls somewhere to stay and gives them work to help support themselves. Our next stop was to ‘Child Reach’ to see the team who had helped organise the link between the two schools. We told them about our experiences and what we had learnt and they were really pleased that we had come to see them. We eventually arrived at school and it was a hive of activity. The whole school were preparing for our leaving ceremony and for the arrival of the District Commissioner of Education. We helped with the preparations and the girls showed us how they prepare and cook the meals. The District Commissioner arrived and we were asked to demonstrate activities and resources that we had used in the week with different children. The District Commissioner is trying to encourage more teachers to move away from the text book and wanted to learn more about how we did that. He really enjoyed the activities and we had a lengthy discussion as to how we made and implemented the resources. Our farewell dinner was spectacular, full of speeches and performances by children and adults. The highlight was our presentation of gifts; an English to Swahili translation t-shirt and zebra print wrap. We wore these with pride, and after lots of cuddles from the children, it was time to say good bye. The week went so quickly and we couldn’t believe it was over as we drove back along the bumpy dirt track for the last time.
Reflections There were many aspects to reflect on from this experience. The children were really inspiring and grateful for anything that we gave them and it was really moving to teach them. The shock of the teachers not understanding how to use the resources made an impact on us. We felt that the training session we delivered was so valuable and the teachers benefited a lot from it, and we hope to see them using them more in the future. This was also reinforced for us by the District Commissioner, as he was really enthusiastic and driven towards this. It really worried us that there was still brutal forms of punishment being given. We saw it another school and it was still clear that the children are very afraid of their teachers. There isn’t a mutual relationship and the way some of the children were treated didn’t appeal to either of us and is something we would focus on as a big change. We were so grateful for the opportunity to go and experience school life in Tanzania and it will stay with us forever. It was a very moving and humbling experience and really made us think about our life here and how different our culture is. It was a fantastic trip for our development in pedagogy as well. We really had to go back to basics and work without any computers, printers or photocopiers. Everything we did was by hand and it surprised us how enjoyable that actually was. We really enjoyed our time at James Ole Millya School and in Tanzania and we can’t wait to share more practice when they return to Birmingham next year.