When we arrived at the school we were told that Clement was not around as he had had to go into the Education Offices in town to sort something out but that he would visit the ACTT offices later in the day so we could catch up with him then.
So we were met by one of the other teachers who showed us around and then some of the children received the laptop. This school is not as large as the previous schools we had visited this morning having around 750 pupils but numbers continue to grow. Whilst the classrooms are not quite as crowded they lack desks so some children still sit on the floor. Whilst being shown around we noticed a number of the children were out in the field behind the school and were told they were growing maize.
Some of the children at Meadowbrook School had written letters to the children at Kayenze Ndogo which we handed over. Hopefully we will collect some replies next week when we visit again.
We were now finished at this school and returned to Robert’s car where it seemed that Shabani the ACTT driver, was turning into quite a salesman, as he was round the back of the car showing some of the teachers the different models of laptop that could be purchased from ACTT.
We now had one last school to visit and so drove back towards Mwanza. Jeshini Primary School is located near Mwanza airport. This is another school that we have supported for the last 4 years. They now have 7 desktops, 1 laptop, 1 printer and 1 projector. The school has around 600 pupils and so we feel they are now (comparatively) well set up with IT equipment and so we have decided to terminate the loan agreement at this school. Again the school have always performed well and provided us with excellent reports, so as with Bugogwa, we have gifted them all the IT equipment. Again the school were very happy that they now own everything.
By now we knew Clement was waiting for us at the ACTT offices but it was well gone 1pm and we were all quite hungry. So we drove back to the office, met Clement and then we all went next door to a smallish local restaurant where we could talk whilst having something to eat.
It was really nice to be able to have a chat with Clement in this relaxed environment away from the school. He told us of some of the challenges the school faces including the lack of electricity. He is still hopeful that the school will get electricity around July time. We then discussed how we might continue to support the school going forward. We have always liked Clement and the way he runs his schools, the staff and pupils always seem really happy.
We paid for lunch - 2 x chicken and chips, 2 x fish and chips, all huge portions, and 4 drinks, all for a cost TSH 28,500 (less than £10) - as we have always said Tanzania is very cheap once you get away from the tourist areas.
After lunch we returned to the ACTT office to discuss some future possibilities with Clement and Robert. Then, after saying goodbye to Clement, Peter, Robert and I worked through our list of proposed donations to schools during the rest of the trip and how best to allocate these.
By the time we had finished this it was gone 4pm and we decided to walk back to the hotel to freshen up before going out for dinner with Robert later. The walk only took about 20 minutes and took us past the roundabout with the fish fountain which I like and also the now abandoned railway line.
This evening Robert picked us up about 7pm and we went to a bar he knows that does really good pork. We were joined by Robert’s friend Alex, who works on the ferries on the lake and his wife. It was a very sociable evening. We had pork from the BBQ which was excellent. During the evening I asked one of the cooks if I could take a photo which he found very amusing. It was a nice end to a very busy day.
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