Geita to Kahama

 1 School, Hamisi’s Family Visit then Travel to Kahama

Today is a busy day. Robert arrives at 7.30 and we load the car with our bags and all the computers. Robert then joins us for breakfast.

We leave Geita and drive towards Katoro stopping at the junction where we turn off the main road towards the school. Hamisi has been trying to download some software for one of the computers which is taking time so we wait for about an hour. I take a few photos of daily life while we wait.

Hamisi arrives about 10. He has a motorbike so he has got Shida, one his computer teachers, to bring him on it. We then drive about 30 minutes down the road to Chemamba Primary School.

One of the villages has put in their own speed bumps but they are too high for small cars. Robert gets stuck on the top and we all have to get out before the car will move.

We arrive at the school at about10.30. This is a much smaller village school than some we support. It is also in a very poor area. There are 620 children and 8 teachers most of whom completed the ICT course with Hamisi.

We are met by the headteacher and then taken to meet the other teachers, the Ward Executive Officer, the Ward Education Officer, the Village Chairman and the Chair of the School Board. Hamisi sets up the computers while we listen to the speeches by everyone thanking us for supporting their school. The Village Chairman says it is a “historic” day for them and the Ward Education Officer tells us that their are 5 primary schools in his ward and this is the first to get any computers.

We have our usual talk with the teachers who will be sending me the reports and then we sign the contracts…….and of course take lots of photos.

Florence, the English teacher, then gathers all the children together from Standard 3 to Standard 7 so we can tell them about the computers. When asked none of them has ever used a computer.

After this I have quite a long chat with Florence as she explains about the challenges of being a teacher in a school like this where most families as very poor. She thinks the computers will be a real asset to the school not only in improving education but in also just encouraging the children to come to school and in motivating them to do well at school and hopefully get a good job.

We are then invited to take chai (a sweet spiced tea) and chapatis which are lovely.

It’s now time to leave and go back to Katoro where Hamisi has invited us to visit his family. His son John will be at school so we stop there on the way to say Hi. John is at an English Medium School which Hamisi has to pay for. It clearly offers a much better standard of education than the government schools.

We then drive to Hamisi’s house where his wife has prepared lunch for us. His daughter Maroba is now 3 and quite a little character. We have brought the children a few small gifts which she is very pleased with.

Sadly we can’t stay very long as we now have the long drive to Kahama. As well as having his computer business Hamisi has a part share in a honey business and he gives us some honey as a gift.

We drop Hamisi back at his office and pick up Tim who is going to drive for us for the next few days.

We arrive in Kahama at about 6.30 by which time it is raining so I don’t get any decent photos. We then need to find somewhere to stay. The first 2 hotels we try are full but the third has a room. It is typically African and is TSH 70,000 for the room and breakfast (about £24) so we take it.

We then go to a local restaurant for dinner. It had been a long, but enjoyable day.