Mambo Viewpoint Week 3: Take another little piece of my heart

At the start of the 3^rd week we reached a bit of a turning point in the computer course. We sort of hit rock bottom first, when we had our 3^rd practise run-through with a pretend student, and Henrish was still getting the simplest things wrong. My frustration must have shown on my face and in my voice as after the lesson he came and sat next to me and with a very sombre look on his face, said “Madam, I'm sorry. I know I've disappointed you. I am going to do better and make you very happy”. I felt like such a bad person! So of course I had to tell him not to worry, and that I had confidence in him and knew he could do it. Then the next day when we came to run through it again he had improved ten-fold! I think he must have practised all night. This time I gave him lots of smiles and nods of encouragement as he gave the lesson and his face lit up. I clearly have neither the aptitude nor the patience to be a teacher, but I can see how rewarding it must be at times.

Nick had gone away to Tanga for a few days (5 hours away) so we replaced him with one of the guides, Ally. This was a huge help as Ally speaks fluent English, knows a LOT about computers (i.e. significantly more than Henrish) but above all he just “gets it”. He can look at a slide and immediately know how to talk about it. He has been able to make a lot of suggestions to Henrish and has also offered to help him out after I leave, which gives me some peace of mind! (If Ally had been the computer teacher we would have had the course up and running a week ago, but since he already has a good job that was sadly not an option!) With his help I also convinced Henrish to try presenting from the PowerPoint, and there was a marked improvement when he had this stimulus to remind him of the structure and flow of the lesson!

Finally towards the end of the week it was time to test the lessons on some real students, i.e people who really had never used a computer before.  We couldn't use the Community Learning Centre itself, as there’d been a problem with the inverter we’d fitted (nothing to do with my wiring, I assure you). So we decided to start off using one of the rooms at the lodge, and training some of the staff.

I quickly realised that I’d vastly underestimated how difficult the lessons would be for them. A one-hour lesson (that had taken about 20 minutes to run through with Ally) took almost 2.5 hours to get through. We ended up having to run through the slides three times as it was such a struggle for them to grasp. They looked scared of the computer at times. Things like clicking with the mouse took a LOT of practice and each letter on the keyboard took an age to find and type. Henrish did a good job, but I felt really overwhelmed, and that I hadn't done a good enough job with the training materials. Only about 20% of the material was practice exercises and it needed to be closer to 80%! In some ways it must be like teaching small children – we’re trying to explain something which is a totally new and alien concept - I really don’t know how to do that! That said, we did have a particular challenges thrown at us as midway through the lesson it became clearer that one of the students (a fairly old lady) could not read or write!

It was really hard to know if they understood what was being taught and if they were really taking it in, or were just blindly copying Henrish. But then later that day I saw one of the students sitting at one of the computers in the reception, and she was practising the things from that day’s lesson, so that was really encouraging. Some of them are quick learners and you can see them starting to get the hang of things and know that this can also make a big difference to their lives, so that is good.

Two of our first students: Asnath and Amina

On Thursday Henrish couldn't work on the computer course as it was “graduation day” at the primary school and he was chief photographer (this is how he has been earning a living until now). He invited me to join him so along I went. First we stopped off for tea and chapati at his family home first and then had a wander around the market. 

Tea in Henrish's front room

Mambo Village Centre

The colourful market in Mambo

Following lunch back at his house it was finally time for the ceremony (it had been delayed due to a funeral in the village, which most of the villagers had to attend). The ceremony was to mark the graduation of the top year pupils from the primary school, and it seemed like most of the village was there to watch. There was dancing, singing, numerous speeches, music and even a show by Moddy’s acrobatics students. I didn't understand half of what was going on certainly everyone was having a good time! Afterwards I was welcomed to a sit-down lunch (rice and fizzy drinks) with the headmaster and some of the other important villagers. I then acted as Henrish’s assistant while he took photos of the graduates (at 800 shillings or 30 pence a pop… he’ll then have to travel 5 hours to Tanga to get them printed!).

The primary school graduates, dressed in their best

The younger children performed a dance.... damn they could move!

Where's Wally?

When I got back to Mambo Viewpoint that evening I heard the upsetting news that Nick and one of the other staff, Kimath, had had a bad car accident near Tanga. One of the tyres had burst and the car had careered into a coconut tree (not very bendy). Luckily they were both going to be OK although Nick had a badly sprained ankle and Kimath had a head injury and had to stay in hospital overnight. The roads are notoriously dangerous here and accidents are common, but they had a very lucky escape. There had also been an incident with Herman and Marion’s dogs, which had somehow escaped into the village and killed two sheep. The farmers were up in arms and demanding recompense and there was a big meeting going on when I got back. We were all very sombre over dinner that night. The next day we sent one of the drivers to bring Niek and Kimath safely home and it was good to have our little family back together.

The Three Mustakeers (or volunteers) - on Julian's last day

On a brighter note, Julian had some positive news from one of his meetings with the cow farmers. Farmers in two of the villages had decided to form a cooperative, which is really positive as they’re not usually very open to working together. Even more significantly, one of the cooperatives had elected a woman as the chairperson! This is a major milestone as women have very few rights here and there’s still a huge inequality. Apparently one of the women had even stood up in front of all the men and announced that they were fed up of having no rights and they wanted change! Hurrah! Go girls!

But while there's some signs of progress, on the other side of it, you have the case of one of the of the young 18-year-old girls in the kitchen who is potentially going to be married to one of the chefs. Aside from the significant age gap, the most depressing thing about it is that she will be his 4^th wife. Unfortunately it’s still the case here that young girls are expected to be married as soon as possible, in order to have security. But what sort of future does it mean for her? She’s a lovely, bright young girl – a fast learner - and with good English. Marion is going to try to subtly intervene and talk to her about her future and that she could have a good job and become one of the senior staff members at the lodge. Hopefully this will empower her enough to consider that she might have other options for the future. I was all for setting her up with one of the young teachers or vets in the village but this may be going one step too far!

Also this week there were a couple of days of crazy weather, including some really high winds. On one particular night I hardly slept, as it was so noisy with the wind whistling and the sides of the tent slapping about! Fortunately at this point Marion asked if I’d like to move into one of the cottages, which of course I did! The cottage was really beautiful and definitely a different side to the Mambo Viewpoint I had known before.

Home in Week 3

I love listening to Herman and Marion’s stories about the funny situations they've encountered… particularly when they first started out. For the first 6 months they lived in one of the tents, while the building work was going on. For most of the locals it was the first time they’d seen white people. Of course they’d also never seen a tent before. They asked Herman where he and Marion were sleeping and he pointed out the tent. They said “but it has no door!”. He showed them the zip-up opening and they remarked “Oh, you’re living in a sack!”. Hilarious! When they first got the solar power up and running one old lady walked two hours from Mtae to find out what was going on, as she’d seen lights blinking on top of the mountain. It was the first time there had been artificial light here. I really admire Herman and Marion so much and part of me would love to do something like this. I just wish I had more practical skills instead of being mainly good at internet stuff!!

The week continued with more and more computer lessons and I was still fretting over whether I’d done enough with the training material but finally accepted that I was probably expecting too much, and actually no-one minded repeating the lessons three times! There was real enthusiasm from the students and I caught several of them sneaking on to the computers at the lodge, to try things out. I guess technology is addictive, wherever you are in the world.

This was the first time any of these guys had used a computer

I’d been so busy with my work that I hadn't had a day off since my arrival. It was a shame that I wasn't able to do any of the beautiful walks in the area, but finally on my last afternoon, Niek and I went on a trip to Mtae, on one of the motorbikes. True to form for a Mambo Viewpoint vehicle, it broke down half way and we had to free-wheel down the hill into the village. Luckily it was just a lack of petrol so we got that topped up in Mtae while we had a cup of tea.

Stunning views on the way to Mtae. Mambo Viewpoint sits atop the mountain on the left

More amazing views

First glimpse of Mtae village, on top of the cliff

Arriving into Mtae

I had a final wrap-up meeting with Herman and Marion and was really touched when they presented me with a thank you gift, especially when it turned out to be a most beautiful wood carving of an African woman, made by a young artist called Isaack who has a workshop in the lodge. Like Moddy, he has an incredible raw talent. He has had no formal training and he doesn't work from drawings or pictures – he just carves. He has an incredible eye for it. It’s a very special memento of this amazing place. I was also given a lovely bag by Ally and a kitenge (a kind of Tanzanian sarong) and a carved wooden lion, from Henrish (making me feel even more guilty for being so mean to him!). 

The very talented Isaack, with my wonderful carving

Too quickly, it was time to leave. Lots of the staff gathered to say goodbye and I was choking back the tears! I hate saying goodbye at the best of times but this was particularly hard as I just love the place and the people so much and feel like there is really something special happening here. Just like last time it felt like I left a little bit of my heart behind!

With Ndege: a brilliant manager, friend and would-be web designer!

With my protégé Henrish

With Ally, one of the most switched-on and bright young stars of Mambo Viewpoint

With wonderful Hoza, my Swahili teacher and Julian's assistant on the Happy Cows, Happy Farmers project

One of the drivers dropped me back in Lushoto and from there I took a very long and slow bus journey back to Dar Es Salaam. I’d treated myself to a nice boutique hotel for the last night of my trip, and celebrated with a delicious seafood dinner and a refreshing glass of good Sauvignon Blanc, on the roof terrace (of course I’d have normally had red, but it was just too darn hot!). I had a quiet final day, enjoying a long sleep and a long bath and then it was time to make my final trip…. home! I have a feeling it won't be my last visit to Tanzania though!

Mambo Viewpoint family
Back row (L to R): Saidi, Ally, Amina, Hoza, Julian, Ndege, me, Marion, Herman
Front row (L to R): Andrew, Mariam, Aminatu, Gideon, Stella, Hatibo, Niek