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.

2007 Visit

2008 Visit

The 2009 Visit Page 3           (go to page 1)

Letter No. 5

Dear All,

The week before last we finally managed to get the tax for electricity question sorted out. It turns out that all the previous advice and opinion was wrong (why is that not a surprise?). Schools do have to pay VAT but external donors to capital infrastructure projects don’t so long as they work through another government agency called the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF). So eventually we get to the situation where a government owned school is having to deal with three other wholly owned government departments – TASAF, the Revenue and Tanesco. Madness! In trying to sort all this over the previous 2 weeks I have only managed to be at school on 3 days and the headmistress has had to be with me on several days as well. But we got it sorted and, on the Thursday before last we get our tax exemption certificate and walked down the road to pay Tanesco. They said they expect to deliver within the week.

Of course the jumping through hoops was not yet over. We were next told that we have to get a green card (cost £2.50 and we have just spent nearly £4000 !!) for our installation to be approved by an independent engineer who knows nothing about our requirements or the site but we must pay him £25. Two days later they decide we need two green cards because we will have electricity in two buildings (which has been the plan since we started talking to them – was it only 6 weeks ago?). Last Thursday, the expected day of delivery, when seeking some sort of assurance that all was done and ready, I managed to have a furious argument with the Tanesco Regional Manager by text – he and all his senior staff being away from the office at a conference. I have to give him a prize for bullshit; try this – “It takes some time to complete all office procedures including preparation and approval of documents to issue requisite material. Also the work needs to be planned.” Like what have we all been doing for the last 6 weeks. I have said it before but I am afraid I shall say it again – Tanesco is an appalling company and, far from helping Tanzania, is bringing it to its knees.

Everything else seemed to be progressing well until last Wednesday. I spent the day visiting Kingori where Mama Laizer, who was Deputy Head of Osiligi last year, is now head of a much bigger school. Also, Einoth, the girl we have sponsored for the last 4 years has finished 6th form and is now teaching there or earn some money. A bit of excitement on the way was a rear tyre blow out when doing about 60mph in a RAV4 (not me driving) – quite hairy for a few seconds but the driver did a very good job. My main reason for going was to take photos of work done with a grant from the Waterloo Foundation who also gave us a grant. Like every government secondary school, Kingori, with 700 students, also has a whole range of problems, it biggest one being how to get electricity. The nearest supply is a high tension line about a kilometre away so I think any connection is going to cost an awful lot of money (no we are not volunteering). But it has a good generator which, though expensive to run, they use for 2 hours each night. They are also about to get 15 computers from an Indonesian donor.