Trevor in Tazania, Week 5

Programming is just flying along, as we have moved past the half way point in our classes. Although I have three classes each week of both Business and Basic Co mputer, my heart lies more with the group from the Department of Substance Abuse. Monday had us back at the Zenj Clove Cafe where we gave our participant's a sheet of paper with a set of instructions. The class unfortunately had to partner up again due to a lack of functioning computers, but they were able to work together to get through the assignment. For the first time, I was not frantically running from computer to computer demonstrating how to use a mouse or open Word, but casually walked the room behind each computer ensuring the correct steps were being taken. There are still many questions, but I am learning more an more that the discovery method of teaching works best here. When I simply show a task, they will comprehend the command, but ask me the same question the next class. Now, when a question is asked, I will go over to the computer and ask them how to preform the tasks one by one. When asked, "how do I change the color of the title?", the answer is no longer shown to them rather I will ask "what do you do before changing any text in Microsoft Word?" I look on the screen and see the cursor move to highlight the text. Once it is highlighted, the cursor will move to the "A" filled with color in the Home tab, and shortly after, I notice the text change from a standard black to say blue. A smile fills their face as they realize their capabilities on the computer. They know how to work through the issues they are having on the computer, and it is important for me not to solve all their problems anymore. My confidence rises with each class that participants will be able to work together to create Word documents they want, I now just need their confidence to rise quickly as I only have three more weeks with them. We made the assignment slightly more manageable in hopes more people would finish, and it worked. Because they were able to complete the worksheet, they were smiling and I had adults coming up to me explaining how proud of themselves they were to be able to finish. Monday was a success all around, and Tuesday and Wednesday's classes were used to review the materials so that next Monday will go even smoother.

Quite the opposite approach has been working in Business Computers. Kanny and I have changed our teaching style in an attempt to have the participants become more engaged in the class. We beging the class showing all the skills we hope they can learn in Power Point for example on the projector screen, followed with an assignment sheet with everything we went over in the first 15 minutes of class. For the most part, participants in this class only need to see how the task is done once, and then enjoy spending time on their personal computers practicing the skill. This week Power Point assignments were given, and by the end of class on Wednesday, they were doing a mock slide show presentation for the class. Kanny and I stressed the importance of having each slide look professional, and it was exciting to watch a presenation with pictures, annimations, and transitions properly used. Friday was day one of Excel, and the class was used to demonstrate many of the functions used in Excel. Monday's class will have the participants copy tables and use the sort and function options.

Environmental Programming this week was very exciting. Alysha and I were invited to a remote village about a 45 minute drive from our office. We passed by hundreds of palm trees, a construction zone, even had our driver accidently hit the rooster trying to make his way across the road before arriving at the village. We were greated by the "large" and "small" leaders of the community along with about four others that were participating in environmental initatives. I walked into a building made of cement blocks about a foot high each. I counted thirteen up the wall before focusing on the tin roof supported by pieces of wood wrapped with string. There were four window size openings on the feature wall, with about a foot between each opening. No glass, screens, or anything in the window, just open air coming into the area used as the office. I took my shoes off before entering and sat on a mat layed out on the floor. An introduction demonstrated the language barrier, as the people of the village did not know enough English for us to effectively communicate. Our translator was unable to explain the concepts to us as well, so the leader handed me two pieces of paper with Swahili writing on it. They were neatly tied together through the top hole punch by a piece of fabric, and I was told to take the paper back to my office to later translate. The English words we did understand were, trees, beans, and fish. Alysha asked what did they want from us specifically, the environmental issue our translator told us was they needed to purchase a cow to transport trees from two miles away. Not exactly the programming we were hoping for, but maybe the letter will expain their needs in greater detail. Quickly, we realized this meeting was not going anywhere, and the leader asked to show us around his community instead. I discovered that "beans" was not beans, but bees. They showed us hives they had set up spread over many acres of land. The small leader put her finger to her mouth and sushed us as we neared the hive to ensure we didn't disturb the bees. As it turns out, the community relies on sales of honey to neighbouring communities. As we walked, I wondered how long it would take us to get to the river the leader mentioned where the fish are. I didn't hear any water near by, and knew the ocean was far, I was confused. We stopped at a hut however, and discovered a cement structure with four walls about five feet tall. A look inside showed about six inches of water in what was now known as a tank. The leader grabbed a stick and began stiring the dark brown muddy water. Fish began to break the surface from frustration of being stabbed at. Our translator explained how the community needs to learn more about raising fish and need to develop ways to ensure the water remains clean. He explained how the fish feed off left over rice and bread. The tank was only about three and a half feet wide by about six feet long, but we were told there are 120 fish in the tank. Don't know what we as YCI volunteers are going to support this community with in terms of environmental issues, but it was an amazing learning experience to witness how the community is living off the land while creating strategies to create a better life for themselves. After a photo and thanks all around, we were given a bottle of honey as a parting gift. Each of us were to put our finger in the ketchup shaped jar and try the honey infront of the audience of nine community members. I was thinking how I could put on my best smile and say how much I liked it regardless of the taste, but after licking the honey from my finger, I honestly was pleasently surprised as the honey was very good. We were welcomed back anytime and their smiling faces sent us on our way. Our second environmental meeting was much more structure and was at our office. The partner organization described their needs with planting trees, but welcomed our eagerness to address the issues of waste management on the island. For the sake of trying to keep this blog somewhat short, I will get into these issues more next week. It does however seem promising for YCI volunteers to bring their ideas forward to this organization in hopes of spreading further awareness and education to surrounding communities on waste management issues.

The weekend was very exciting as the volunteers and I booked a trip to Prison Island. In what I call a forty foot canoe, we slowly moved towards our destination. Powered by a 15 horsepower engine, we fought the three foot waves and only looked ahead to more white-capped waves. Our first stop was just off the coast of a really small uninhabited island. The would be 30 minute transport took closer to 50, but we got there safely. We spend just over an hour using our snorkels to view the beautiful coral reefs below. There were so many different species of fish below us it was difficult to count them all. My favorite was viewing the giant clams that would change color as I swam towards them. There were creatures which had on average 10 inch spikes from their ball like bodies, so I stayed well away from those. Their color was black, with some small areas of red, but I found them to be the most beautiful creatures in this area. From there we swam back to the boat and fought the waves again for another 30 minutes or so where I did nothing but regret not taking a Gravol. I think the others did too, as the boat ride over was VERY quite. Prison island was beautiful and filled full of history too. The island was used to keep slaves before being sent out to European countries. We explored the prison cells and saw the gate that linked the prison to the ocean. The gate was called the gate with no return, for once a person went through the gate they would be used as a slave and not be able to return to thier homeland and families. It was a sad time for us, but the history is important. Also on the island are giant turtles. We spent a lot of time feeding the turtles cabbage, and we all enjoyed our time petting their long necks. There are over one hundred turtles on the island and the oldes one was 150 years. What a great experience! The day was crazy hot, and our time and energy were done. We made it back to our island and spent the rest of the day relaxing at Stone Town cafe. Sunday was spent exploring the market, and I spend a great deal of my budget buying all sorts of interesting things from Tanzania. I have taken on the ambitious task of reading a book titled The State of Africa, written by Martin Meredith, so hopefully when I get back I will know just that much more about what is happening on this continent!. Another week down!

Next week, we are programming more for International Women's Day (March 8th) and will continue with Computer and Environmental Programming. We are realizing how fast our last three weeks will go, so we are all trying to enjoy our time together to the fullest. Thanks for reading my blog, and I miss you all very much!

Trevor