Gab Fest

Our small book of lesson plans is now ready.  Gab Fest:  A Collection of Activities to Promote Spoken English will be given to the eight primary schools and the three secondary schools that we work with.  It is our hope that the books will be useful.

Gab Fest

We have long believed that many students of English have heads full of grammar but lack the ability to communicate.  Some ESL teachers drill English structure and have their students do endless 'fill in the blanks' activities and grammar tests that are then corrected and marked.

Our approach is different.  We believe that learning English is like playing football.  You can read and write about football until the cows come home, but you will never be able to play it until you start kicking the ball around.  The activities in Gab Fest are designed to get the students speaking English and to gain ability and confidence, in other words to get them kicking the ball around.

The lesson plans came from a wide variety of sources.  Some of them were found in ESL books and some on the Internet.  Many were developed through conversations with fellow teachers.  We invented some of them.

We have used some of the activities in Gab Fest as primary school teachers in Korea and university teachers in China.  Many of them have been adapted to meet the local conditions in rural Tanzania.  We have selected activities which do not require a lot of resources.  Most of them can be done with pens and paper and with chalk and a chalkboard.  They are designed to be done at no cost or very low cost.

We would like to thank Cuso International and VSO Tanzania for their support of our work among rural Tanzanian teachers.  We are very grateful for the constant support of our partner, Mr. Ndee, the director of the CERC and Mr. Henry Kimola our Champion Teacher.

A very big thank you also goes out to the folks at the Tanzania Development Trust (TDT) who provided the funding for the printing of Gab Fest.

May Day--A Political Post

“Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”

Ronald Reagan

On May 1^st left wing movements all over the world celebrate International Workers' Day.  Sometimes with violent demonstrations but often peacefully, trade unionists, communists and anarchists dig their red and black flags out of their closets, dust them off and wave them proudly.

To Each According to his need, from each according to his ability.

Karl Marx

In Canada, middle-aged tenured academics and rococo Marxists do likewise, if only in their imaginations.  They quaff micro-brewery beer, sip fair trade coffee in chichi cafes, thumb well-worn copies of Chomsky’s, Manufacturing Consent, reflect on their favourite Michael Moore film and become teary eyed as they dream of the socialist visions of their youth.

In 80 countries of the world International Workers' Day is a national holiday.  Tanzania is one of those countries.

I have often asked myself since coming here why this country is poor and undeveloped and yet seems to have everything.  Natural gas, diamonds, iron, nickel, precious gems, coal and platinum are all there for the digging.  Tanzania is the third largest producer of gold in the world.

Tanzania's tourist sites are the most spectacular to be found anywhere.  Serengeti, Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro, Olduvai Gorge and Zanzibar are places of the imagination.  The Tanzanian people are friendly and welcoming.  They are among the most polite people that I have met. 

Countless billions of dollars in foreign aid have been funneled here since 1961 to the point where Tanzania is known as a 'donor darling.'  And yet, many people have nothing, need everything and given the richness of their beautiful country, deserve so much more.  Why?

Ironically, it is the socialist vision that is being celebrated today all over the world that is responsible for the economic woes of Tanzania.

Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania, studied at the University of Edinburgh.  There, he encountered the ideas of Fabian socialism.  The Fabians believed in the Marxist vision of a society based on the principle of, to each according to his need; from each according to his ability. They wanted this vision to be achieved gradually rather than through violent revolution.

Julius Nyerere

Like a generation of young men who would later lead post-colonial African countries, Nyerere rejected the fundamental truth that capitalism is the only system of society that allows man to use his reason to create wealth.  Under the guidance of his Fabian mentors, Nyerere ignored this truth and dreamed of importing socialism into Africa at the same time that America was becoming a beacon of capitalism. 

While Americans were fast becoming the wealthiest people on earth, with the most political and personal freedom in the history of man, Afro-Marxists were poised to lead their continent into grinding poverty.  Americans recognized that there is no liberty unless there is economic liberty.  To Tanzania’s peril, Julius Nyerere did not.

Once Nyerere took hold of the levers of government he worked on creating a country based on Marxism. To each according to his need became the guiding light.  Need became the common currency.  Tanzanians stretched out their hands to the Nyerere's government to get their needs met.  In theory, those with the greatest need were to get the most.  Socialism quickly turned Tanzania into a country of alms seekers.

A huge civil service was created to administer to the needs of Tanzanians and dole out the country’s treasure.  As in most Afro-Marxist regimes it took no time at all for the bureaucracy to become hopelessly corrupt.  Margaret Thatcher summed up the situation nicely when she later said, “Socialists cry ‘power to the people’ and raise their fists as they say it.  We all know what they really mean—power over the people, power to the state.”

Socialism works well until you run out of other people's money

Margaret Thatcher

The producers, whose creative energy was being regulated and whose wealth was being appropriated to meet the never ending 'need' quickly realized that this was a suckers' game.  Like Hank Rearden, the steel producer in Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged, they shrugged.  They stopped producing, emigrated or simply didn't show up.  By the 1970s eighty percent of employed Tanzanians worked for the state.

         

A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights;

it holds a legal monopoly on the use of force against a legally disarmed victim.

Ayn Rand

All of the predictable events followed, as they have done in every socialist country from Cuba to Albania.   A single party state, collectivization of farms, preventative detention and torture were followed by hunger, shortages, a crumbling infrastructure and mind blowing poverty. 

In the late 1970s Tanzania had more political prisoners than South Africa.

When Julius Nyerere took time off to visit Chairman Mao; Tanzania was one of the least developed countries on earth.  The socialist vision, imported from Scotland so many years ago, has hobbled the prosperity that Tanzanians so richly deserve.

Writing and Performing Television Commercials

The performing of an orange soda commercial

We gave our primary teachers the assignment to write and perform a short television commercial.  The small groups of writers and actors had the choice of creating commercials for various products including beer, toilet paper, bug spray, matches and tomato paste.  Some of the creations were hilarious.

Work Begins on our Model Classroom Project

Mr. Jonas, the painter, holding a roller with his assistant painting the burglar bars.

The walls will be painted cream colour and the bars a light blue.

Yesterday the painters started work on our model classroom project at Chemchem Primary School in Kibaya.  When completed the classroom will have a white board, a library in a box, a study and conversation area with tables and comfortable chairs, a wall map and a bulletin board.

To Canadians, this might seem like a very modest project.  However in Tanzania kids often sit on the floor and teaching aids are unknown.

Many thanks to the Tanzania Development Trust (TDT) for the funds that are making this project possible.

Cooking with English

This was the first in what will become a series of lessons entitled, 'cooking with English.'  We found this dried fish in the market and had our primary teachers discuss their favourite recipes and share them with us and their colleagues.

The lesson had several advantages.  It gave the teachers the opportunity to learn and practice food vocabulary and allowed them to give detailed explanations and directions in English.  It is a confidence builder to talk about a subject with which you are interested in and comfortable with.

Tonight we will use the recipes developed in the class to prepare this fish.

Next week's 'Cooking with English' session will be entitled, 'Help Debra Prepare these Green Bananas'.

Wonderful News

An aging computer at the CERC cobbled together with bits of cardboard boxes.

This aging wreck will soon be replaced.

We applied for a grant to replace the broken down and aging computers at our partner organization, the Community Education Resource Centre (CERC).  This morning we received  news that our grant application had been approved and that we will be getting the funds to buy twenty refurbished computers.  These funds will come from the monies raised at the Kilimanjaro Marathon which was held in Februrary.

The much improved access to information technology will help the people of rural Kiteto to build their capacity.  The courses that will be possible on the new computers will go a long way to empower the people of our community.

Many thanks for the support of Margaret and Ishwar.  Not only did they fund raise and run in the Kilimanjaro Marathon but they also wrote letters supporting our grant application.

A very big vote of thanks must also go out to Jean van Wetter our country director.  His enthusiastic support for our work here is much appreciated.

 

Easter Weekend

He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.

Come here and see the place where he lay.

Matthew 28-1-10

Our Easter weekend involved food, friends and lots of laughter.  We were guests at Mr. and Mrs. Ndee's house for lunch on Saturday where we ate delicious home cooked Tanzanian food had a lovely visit and a tour of the new home that the Ndee's are building.

Mr. and Mrs. Ndee



On Sunday all of the Muzungus in town plus two Muzungu guests, Chris and Lesley, contrubuted to a pot luck Easter feast topped off with chocolate cake decorated with Easter chickens.  We even hunted for jelly bean Easter eggs in Tessa's garden.  The Easter Mongoose was good to us.

Lesley, Debra, Tessa, Chris, Mindy and Michael

It was a memorable weekend with lots of stories to tell.

Debra's Chocolate Cake

Books Arriving for our 'Libraries in Boxes' Project

There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book.

Marcel Proust

Books from our friends and family in Canada and the USA are beginning to arrive here in Kibaya.  Special thanks to Ron and Linda, Heather and Marc and all of our friends in Nova Scotia.

  

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.  Inside of a dog it's too hard to read.

Groucho Marx

A Flurry of Activity to End the Fiscal Year

It's not the end of the school year but it is the end of VSO's fiscal year.  Our budget has provided for transportation and food allowances for our teachers.  Our primary teachers also had incentives, in the form of study materials and school supplies, to encourage them to attend our English and teaching methodology workshops.

We bought these books and school supplies on a recent safari to Dar es Salaam 

On March 31st we no longer have money to run our programmes.  With any luck at all though big donors like the World Bank will come through and our work will continue after April 1st.

In our wrap us sessions we discussed teaching methodology, passed out many school supplies, awarded proficiency certificates, drank soda and ate cake.

 Secondary teachers enjoying some excellent cake

A Sad Day

Pascal Antony's wife died on Friday.  Pascal Antony is our night guard.  You have seen his picture in a previous post.  He arrives at dusk riding his black Phoenix bicycle and walks around our yard wrapped in his black and red plaid blanket until dawn, keeping us safe.  He does this seven days a week for 80,000 Tsh, or about fifty dollars, a month.

Pascal's wife has been sick for a few weeks.  He took her to the local hospital for treatment.  There was no diagnosis, so they sent her home.  A week later she was still sick and so he took her back to the hospital in a taxi, a major extravagance for a man like Pascal.  Something was seriously wrong.  After a blood sample was analyzed Pascal Anthony was told she needed a blood transfusion.  During the time Anthony and his friends were running all over the town looking for blood donors, she died.

She was in her middle twenties.  She was buried yesterday.

Pascal is now left with his seven year old daughter and a one and a half year old son.

We found out about Pascal's wife's death while we were in Dar es Salaam buying books and teaching materials for our primary teachers.  We were travelling back to Kibaya when she was buried so we couldn't attend the funeral.

Mr. Ndee, our Tanzanian manager and local partner, offered to take us to the wake this morning.  Without a shadow of a doubt, Mr. Ndee is one of the most supportive bosses that I have ever had and I don't say this lightly.  He told us what to expect over tea and cookies at our house and even advised Debra to wear her traditional kanga and head scarf and how much money was appropriate to give the grieving family.

We followed a maze of dirt paths to get to Pascal's house guided by Lucas, the fellow standing in for Pascal as our guard during this time.  Tanzania has thousands of miles of paths and as we were walking down them I kept thinking that they had probably been here for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Upon turning a corner, there we were.  Pascal's home is made of mud bricks.  Just outside the house there is a clearing surrounded by corn and sunflower fields.  In the clearing the family had spread out plastic tarps for the twenty or so mourners to sit on.  A wood fire was burning and pot of meat was supported over it by three stones.  In one corner there were a few stools.  We were welcomed warmly.  We shook everyone's hand and offered our sympathy.  “Pole sana” is the correct thing to say.

Pascal, wrapped in a white sheet, was sitting with his immediate family.  We sat with them and shared rich, smoke flavoured, sweet tea.

I feel so sad about this. 

At VSO they say that volunteers learn more than they teach.  I know the population figures of Tanzania and, if I choose, can spout development speak, but that's not what it's about.  It's about experiencing the lives of the people we serve, the good times as well as the bad. 

Today was the bad.