Day 5 - Opening Eyes

A glorious day in Arusha today. On the way to the CASEC offices we passed a wide expanse of lush green bush, leading up onto a forest covered hill. Randomly there were two wicker chairs sitting there with a small wicker table between them. Almost as if they were ready for us to sit down and watch a reality TV show with a difference. 

I spent last night catching up with African Initiatives’ ex Volunteer Jill who came out to Tanzania in January to volunteer for 6 months. She now has a job with PWC, one of our partners who, she tells us have just received a grant from Oxfam to help build the capacity of school councils to demand their rights. Schools proved to be a theme today as I trained CASEC staff and volunteers in School Partnerships, or links. In the UK a lot of my work is around supporting these between schools in the south west of England and the rest of the world. Because of our work in Africa I often get asked whether we can facilitate links with Ghana and Tanzania, and, according to the Head Mistresss of Sombetini Secondary School yesterday, schools here want to expose their students to the ideas and friendship of another country just as much as our own. 

In the CASEC offices, above the door as you leave to climb up the wide steps and see the large, freshly cut lawn, you see a portrait of Julius Nyerere, the first President of Tanzania with the title Baba wa Taifa underneath it – Father of the Nation. The jury may be out elsewhere on Nyerere’s socialist policies, but within Tanzania he remains defiantly popular. 7 people have asked me whether I know of him, and when I say I have, I receive satisfied nods as if I have passed a test. He was called Muralimu, the teacher and it was he who said (I may be paraphrasing) “Take all the money you give in aid to Tanzania and spend it teaching your children about the causes and effects of poverty”. 

School partnerships do this on both sides – the developing world does not hold copyright on poverty. It exists everywhere. Partnerships allow children to see this, to realise that there are challenges everywhere, to see that they are not alone. Young people who may never have come into contact with different cultures suddenly have a ‘way in’ that means something to them; they have a context to share. Teachers have the opportunity to explore new methodologies, new ways of working and expand their own horizons. 

Today we talked about how every partnership has to be equity-based. This is harder than you may think. The way of the world is that one school will be wealthier than the other. However It is the materialism within us, and our society, which couples wealth to money. There are far more important things that Tanzanian schools have to give – a beautiful environment with the animals which every kid (and adult) dreams about seeing; young people who are eloquent and passionate; a notion of ‘family’ which goes far beyond 2.4 children and TV dinners and an innate knowledge that we are here on this earth to help each other, learn from each other and make it a better place. But today I realised the most important thing that Tanzanian schools have to give,  as stated simply by Pendo, one of the staff  "perhaps the UK school needs friendship.”