Today is Monday and we are starting our visits to the Primary schools that we support. We are starting with Mbugani Primary School which is literally just behind our hotel.
Hamisi, Robert’s agent in Geita will accompany us on all our school visits in the Geita region. Robert, Aaron and Hamisi pick us up around 10am. When we arrive at the school we are met by Elkana who is the ICT teacher, and who we have worked with ever since we started supporting this school in 2019. We are then introduced to the new Headteacher who has been at Mbugani for about 6 months, since the old Headteacher retired.
We are then taken to the Headteacher’s office where we briefly explain to him the whole history of our project. I also explain that we have brought them 1 more computer today but that this will be our final donation to the school as we are now going to hand over all the computer equipment to them. We feel that they now have a great well equipped computer room that they use really well so it is now time for us to move on. It also means that Elkana will no longer need to send me his reports. Something he is very happy about, having been doing this for the last 7 years.
We move to the computer room which will now have 12 computers, a printer and a projector. It is great to see how this ICT room has grown and improved over the years. We will be sad to finish supporting this school but feel we are leaving them in a really good place.
So we now drive out of Geita to Ziwani Primary School. We have supported this school since 2023 and so have made this journey several times but I am sure the road was worse than ever this year. As soon as we turned off the tarmac road it was awful. It took us nearly 2 hours to reach the school and despite Aaron’s attempts to drive slowly and as smoothly as possible it felt like we had spent most of journey bouncing around in the car.
When we arrive at Ziwani we are greeted by Ben, the ICT teacher and the Deputy Headteacher. I already knew from Ben’s reports that the HeadTeacher had been involved in a motorbike accident a few months ago and broken his leg and that he is still not able to return to work. So unfortunately we didn’t get to meet him this time.
We are taken to the computer room which has been greatly improved since our last visit. They now have plenty of space and the room has a good floor. The walls could still do with some attention, but all in all it is much better than the original room.
Today we have brought them 1 more computer bringing their total amount of equipment to 7 computers, 1 laptop, 1 printer and 1 projector. The chair of the school committee thanks us for all our support as do the teachers and we then renew the loan contract with the school.
Some Standard 7 pupils then come and meet us. They are Mariam, Rahma, Morini, Atuganile, Dotto, Meresiana, Sophia and Victoria. I chat with the girls and am pleased that they enjoy using the computers.
We then visit the Standard 7 classroom where the rest of the class thank us for the computers. There are over a 100 children in the class.
It is now time for us to leave as we know we have a 2 hour bumpy drive back to Geita. It’s well gone lunchtime but we decide to head back to Geita before getting any food. We do just stop and buy some water and peanuts to keep us going on the drive back. It is now pretty hot and the road is very dusty neither of which enhance our journey 😂.
When we get back to Geita town Hamisi directs us to a restaurant. This one is Chazzes Fast Food. There is the usual selection of food and people choose different things including liver, fish and chicken which all come with the standard accompaniments of rice or ugali, greens and beans, all very tasty. Pete, Robert and I finish up with a fresh mixed fruit juice which is lovely. Again the meal is very cheap and we are now very full.
It is now late afternoon and Robert and Hamisi have some things to do in town, so we arrange to see them tomorrow morning. Aaron then drops us back at the hotel where the girl who did our room has left us a nicely decorated bed. We spend a quiet evening here at the hotel.
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