Part 2 of trying to finish up!
Trip Start
Aug 08, 2006
1
13
14
Trip End
Jun 12, 2007
Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
Sunday, July 22, 2007
In my last entry I talked about my trip with my friend Lindsay from high school. We had a great time and it was really hard to see her go. I knew that I only had two months left and had a lot to finish in that time i.e. exams, dissertation research, final papers, the leadership camp, and all my East Africa traveling
Info camp small group
. After Lindsay left, I knew I was going to have to hit the ground running and spend my time juggling all the things I had started. Fortunately or unfortunately when I got back, I had more time then I thought because the University was on strike. The students were being asked to pay 40% of their tuition fees but were refusing. They began their strike the week that exams were supposed to start. The issue of tuition was an interesting one in the Tanzanian school system and in some ways was directly linked to the country's socialist past. It was difficult to get anyone to explain the situation to me because they said I would not understand. Students were being pulled from buses for trying to leave campus for "deserting the cause" and all classes were being disturbed by mobs of students. From what I gathered, it seemed that in the past students who performed well in their A-levels (high school exams for college entry), got scholarships for 100% loans at the University. After that, other students were admitted if they could pay their fees. Then at some point after complaints, the school started offering the 100% loans to all students. However, these loans have a pay back period of 10-15 years, no interest, and in most cases are never paid back because there is no method of enforcement. Basically, the students on loan were get free education.
At the beginning of the 2006-07 school year, students had to sign an agreement that they would pay 40% of school fees this year
Info camp session
. This applied to all incoming first-year students regardless of income. Many blamed the change on the World Bank pressures to use "cost-sharing" in social service programs. The students said they didn't want to pay or at least didn't want poorer students to be excluded from the university because they couldn't pay the 40%. The professors, on the other hand, said that the students needed to pay because the school had no money and that even families that could pay were taking government loans that they knew they didn't have to pay back.After three days, the school was closed and all undergraduate students were suspended for the month. They left in droves and the campus was completely quiet for the month. It was such a strange thing because no one would really talk about it. I wanted to discuss the issue with my fellow students but they didn't want to talk about it or offer solutions. These strikes happen every year for one reason or another and it just seemed like this was how it was done. After all of the undergraduate students left, the graduate students continued on their regular schedule in an empty campus.
I also came back to find out that my friend and our house girl Matty was pregnant. She is 19. Mama talked to me over and over again how she had warned Matty not to "play sexy" and how she had tried to keep her away from boys
Info Camp group activity
. Matty was really upset and Mama was afraid that she would do something to herself. She had the other girls watching her all of the time. Matty said that she wanted to leave because she felt that she brought shame onto the Reverend's house. The first week was really tense and I wasn't sure how the family was going to handle it. It seemed like Matty had nowhere to turn because when Matty had gone to the doctor on campus, she had told her to tell Mama Ngao about the pregnancy and had also told her not to seek an abortion. Because the doctor was a member of the Ngao's church, it was clear that she would have told the Ngaos about the pregnancy if Matty had not told them herself. Matty also did not have the option of going home because she had no support there and the father of her child worked as a truck hand and had no money either. The Ngaos discussed the options and told Matty they would support her. It was a really positive turnaround and Mama Ngao began talking about it as a blessing in disguise. I was really wonderful to see how they wanted to support her but it was also hard to see because someone in Matty's position really has no option. I told the Ngaos I would help in anyway that I could as well. Outside of campus and my house, I continued to work on the Info Camp program with Phylo. After talking to the U.S. embassy, they agreed to give us space and technical support for the camp
more small group
. A contact at a local hotel, the Peacock agreed to give us food. The Rotary Club of Dar es Salaam gave us a donation for t-shirts and my home Rotary cCub of Peabody, MA gave us a donation for other supplies. It was all coming together.Phylo got together a team of 10 student leaders from various student groups on campus to volunteer as counselors for the event. We met every Sunday to discuss the content and logistics for the camp. The team that Phylo got together was phenomenal. They were all interested in the cause (helping young women become more confident leaders) and were willing to commit their time to the planning. They had great ideas for sessions and all had some background in presenting topics. The camp took place on Saturday May 12th and Sunday May 13th. We held sessions on team building, communications, career skills, Internet know-how, and emotional intelligence. The 40 high school girls that participated said that they had never been part of anything like this camp and really got into all of the sessions. It was a huge success.
The week after the camp finished was reading week before exams and I hurried around to finish my dissertation interviews, work on final papers, and study for the upcoming exams as well as plan my flights for travel to Ethiopia the day after exams ended. During this time, I had dinner with all of my classmates to say goodbye and tried to fit in other time with friends I had meet outside of campus. I wish I had had more time in the end to say good-byes and finish up but all in all the experience in Tanzania was wonderful and being at the University really allowed me to understand the Tanzanian perspective on development. I did have some time to say goodbye to my family after my two weeks of traveling so I'll mention more about that in my final entry... which I promise will be written in the next two weeks!
