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Sue and Tony Pace regularly spend 3 months working in Tanzania. During the visit, they regularly send e-mail letters to their friends. These make a wonderful story, and with their permission we are able to print them here with the accompanying photographs. They are printed in chronological order. The 2009 Visit Page 2 (go to page 1) (go to page 3)
Letter No. 4 28th February 2009 Dear All
This is
my first letter without Sue to help me.
She left on Thursday afternoon and I have heard she is safely
home. I think it was
definitely time she left because her knee was beginning to give her
trouble, probably caused by so much getting on and off scaffolding to
putty the windows. She has
done very well and fortunately her back seems to have given her little
trouble
After our last letter we had many emails encouraging us to overcome our frustration and we thank you for those. Most of the other emails seemed to suggest that when I fell I was either drunk (what, at 10 in the morning?), cannot manage without Sue to guide me (probably true!) or looking at pretty women (I shall say nothing!!). The fact is I cannot remember the actual fall. Anyway the wound is healing well, the black eye has gone and Sue seems to think I shall look OK once half my eyebrow grows back. And I have had a new lens made for my glasses. The last two weeks have been a mixture of frustrations and successes. One of the really good days was when we went back to see Kimnyak school where we were building 2 years ago. It was really pleasing to see that everything we did is still working and the school has moved on to build more classrooms and to repair two of the old ones; the teachers houses are fully occupied and the water and electricity are in good order. It made me feel that maybe we are doing something useful. The fact that the school had been sent 400 new pupils this year (the whole school was only 500 2 years ago) so that there are no classrooms for half of them, that there is a chronic shortage of teachers, particularly of sciences and that the headmaster is useless are other issues. Secondary education seems to be going through something of an overload crisis all over the country – the result of the success of primary education. We also, at last, seem on the way to getting electricity into Osiligi but it has been a long and frustrating battle. Part of the problem has been the school committee who are determined to stay with Tanesco despite all the problems they present. The reason is that they want at least the potential of a supply for the surrounding community and solar could never fulfil that. But this has also added to the complications because they had given Tanesco the impression that we wanted a 3-phase supply when single phase is all the school requires. It was only when this was sorted out, after several meetings, that Tanesco came up with a price we could accept – so long as we don’t have to pay VAT !! I won’t start to describe the loops and hurdles we have to go through to get VAT exemption (which is supposed to apply to all schools) but we think we are nearly there – but we have thought that before!!! Tanesco say (but do I really believe it?) that once we have got this sorted out they will do the installation very quickly. Most of our building is now done. I spent much of the week before last making sure they finish off the work properly before the builders got their final payment. What they said would take one day actually took four days before I was satisfied. But the school now has two more pristine classrooms and the teacher houses, started last year, are complete in every detail, wired up and awaiting electricity and occupants. The cookers are nearly complete and work has started on the last building project – to extend the toilet block so as to give 12 toilets each to girls and boys. Next we also hope to start on extending the water supply further down the school grounds so there is a supply closer to the toilets. Last week I also taught a maths class for the second time. After the frustrating lack of attention last time I gave them a choice – those who didn’t want to learn maths could leave without penalty but they could not come back in later ; all but 15 left to do some gardening but then it was a good and attentive class which everyone seemed to benefit from. Not sure it is quite in the spirit of education for all but it seemed to work. Last weekend I officially became an old age pensioner. We went to Tarangere, our favourite safari park, for two nights and had a great time. It is a lovely place and there were masses of elephant (for which Tarangere is famous) but very few giraffe which are Sue’s favourite. On my birthday she got them to make me a cake but when we tried to bring half of it back for our home-stay children, our driver managed to lose it – and I managed to lose his tip!!! The only other setback was that Sue’s feet suffered badly from insect bites but she recovered quite quickly
The weather seems to be more changeable so maybe the rainy season is starting but at least it keeps the dust down and it is still warm. Best Wishes to you all Tony Letter no. 3 February 13th 2009 Dear All, We consider ourselves very lucky to have spent almost a year of our lives in this backward country without even so much as an upset stomach but our luck changed on the Wednesday before last. Tony was in Arusha by himself with lots to do when he tripped and ended up on the pavement. Sue says it was because she wasn’t with him and men can’t do 2 things (think and walk) at the same time. Anyway, bad cuts above his eye and grazing to face and mouth but the locals were very kind and helpful until Sue came to rescue him and 6 stitches later he’s OK. We are grateful that nothing more serious than one lens of his glasses are broken though he looked a real site the next morning (see attached if you dare!!). A week later most of the bruising has gone and the stitches came out OK. Tony says good care but little sympathy from the wife – so nothing’s changed there then!!
The other big event has been that we have bought about 400 course books because the school had almost none. 2½ million shillings (£1300) sounds like a lot but in the end it didn’t look so much. Now we want to encourage the children to use the books because in too many other schools the books just seem to be locked away.
Building has continued thought the rate of spending has slowed considerably – well we just couldn’t go on at that rate. The classrooms are in their final stages and should be finished within the next few days. After several false starts we think we have found a fundi who can build the cookers in the kitchen we built last year and we are still trying to get the few finishing touches done to the teachers houses we built last year. We have yet to start the extension of the toilets though the estimates are now agreed Which brings us on to electricity – No we still don’t have clear answer from Tanesco even though it is promised imminently. There is a sort of sense that they know they ought to get electricity to the school but they don’t want to spend the money. All we want is that they make a decision. Tony has taken on a bit of Maths teaching again and gave his first lesson in Statistics to Form 3 the day after his accident. It seemed to go quite well with the students who were interested but at least half the class just didn’t want to know. Given that at least a basic pass in Maths is essential for passing the National Form 4 exams (a fail in maths means they fail the whole exam no matter how they do in other subjects), it seems clear that many of the students see school as a way of filling time and wasting their parents precious money. It is very frustrating as we know of other children who are desperate to go to school but their parents can’t afford it The frustrations of
living in You may have noticed the increasing use of the F word (frustration!). We seem to have been fighting the same battles for four years now and although there is some progress it is awfully slow. We really do feel that this will be our last time (have we said that before?) but this time we are already thinking of something completely different for next year. But there is still so much to do so if anyone out there would like to take over they would be most welcome and we would do all we can to help. At the very least you miss the English winter – we have heard rumours of a little snow! This will be the last letter from Sue who is home in two weeks. Tony is due to stay a further month but is already talking of coming back earlier if the work runs out. Our Love and best Wishes to you all Tony and Sue
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