Having spent the last few days travelling we had arranged a quiet a couple of quiet days in Mwanza before we start visiting the schools. However as always Robert has arranged a few outings for us.
We do spend Friday morning at the hotel getting ready for our school visits and preparing all the contracts. I also wrote my first blog entry.
In the afternoon Robert wanted to go and visit Wita Primary School which is about 20 km from Mwanza. This school applied to us for support this year but we didn’t select them. Robert wanted to go and explain to the Head Teacher why we didn’t choose them and what they needed to do to improve their chances of selection next year.
The traffic in Mwanza can be awful and the journey took about an hour. As always Pete took a few photos on the way showing every day life here. He also managed to snap the new modern bus station and a huge church under construction.
When we arrive at the school we are taken to the Headmasters office and greeted by the second master (Deputy Headmaster). This is a very large primary school with over 5,000 children and 58 teachers. It is now nearly 4pm and I am surprised to see lessons still in progress in most classrooms as well as outside under the trees. The teacher explains that because they don't have enough classrooms for all the children they operate a “shift” system for lessons for the younger children. There are 3 shifts a day, the last one finishing at 5pm and children attend 1 session per day.
We are now joined by the Head Teacher and have quite a long chat with him about our project. He then takes us to a room that they have already prepared as a computer room. So really they just need to enrol some more teachers in an ICT training course with ACTT and then submit a better application with more information next year. The Head teacher is happy with this.
By the time we leave the school it is gone 5pm and we head back to Mwanza where Robert has arranged for us to meet up with the staff from the ACTT (Affordable Computers and Technology for Tanzania) Office for a drink.
Again Pete takes a few photos of the local market and the town of Mwanza as we approach it.
We have arranged to meet the staff at Mwanza Beach Resort which is right in front of a huge fish market on the shore of Lake Victoria.
A bit later we order some food. Pete and I share a Tilapia fish (after all we are right beside the fish market so it should be good!!). When it arrives it is probably the best tilapia we have ever eaten….really nicely cooked. A very pleasant evening.
Saturday was a nice quiet day for us. Robert and the staff were hoping to move to a new office today which he wanted us to go and see but in the end the move didn’t happen so we just spend the day relaxing around the hotel.
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