Teaching in Tanzania

We want to begin by wishing all of you a happy Easter. Today is a holiday here and thus we have a one week break from teaching (that started last Tuesday, so classes begin again tomorrow).

This time we want to share some reflections on our teaching here in Tanzania. Although the teaching itself does not differ greatly from our work in Nigeria, the context is certainly different, and that impacts our relationship with students, and our methods as well. 

Chapel on Malimbe campus

Plaque commemorating founding of SAUT as a university in 1999 (before that it was Nyegezi Social Institute)

To begin, we realize that a big difference between our work here in Tanzania and in Nigeria is the factor of language. As in Nigeria, English is the medium of instruction, but outside of class, Swahili, the national language, is used almost exclusively by both faculty and students. If competence in English left much to be desired for Nigerian students, we find that Tanzanian students, for the most part, have at least a passive acquaintance with the language. Many students in both countries find it difficult to write well in English, largely because they do not read enough good books and articles. The library, here, as in Jos, is not adequate even for undergraduate, much less graduate students. Yet SAUT is commited to building a decent library, certainly by African standards. The new library building indicates that.

Entrance to library

New library building

No bags are allowed into the library, but books disappear anyway

Students studying in the library

Our students at SAUT are also more shy than in Nigeria. They are not so ready to offer answers when a question is raised. Perhaps the context has its impact, because Wendy's class in introductory philosophy is large: 122 students in all. But they do have a chance to talk when the Friday tutorial is given. A course typically meets three hours per week. While two hours are devoted to lectures, the third hour involves ‘tutorials.’ Students are divided into small groups for discussion. But we have discovered that such group discussions spill over outside the classroom. The campus is dotted with groups of students comparing notes, explaining the lecture materials to each other. To judge by these groups, students here seem more committed to their studies than those in Nigeria.

Wendy talking to students in a discussion group

One of about ten discussion groups in her class

 

Discussion groups can be found all over the campus

Adrian's graduate course in the “History of Political Ideas” has fourteen MA students, a fairly typical size for a class at that level. Again he uses the two-hour period to lecture; in the tutorial hour students read and discuss portions of texts of major political philosophers. He has discovered that his students are not used to this kind of intensive reading. They have never been exposed to reading either Plato or Aristotle, or any other major authors introduced; and they have little or no background in philosophy to prepare them for the challenge. Students who have graduated from SAUT have had as least two required philosophy courses: the introductory course that Wendy is now teaching and a course in logic. But students who graduated from other Tanzanian universities were not required to take any philosophy courses. At SAUT, the philosophy program will soon be expanded; the department is proposing a new BA in Philosophy for students in education which will have many more courses in philosophy. 

Adrian teaching his class

Wth about 6000 students, SAUT is already the largest private university in Tanzania and the second-largest overall. It appears that education was not a priority in Tanzania for the first years after independence, but that has changed in recent years. Universities are springing up out of the ground, as it were, and are scrambling to find enough lecturers. This is the reason why SAUT invited us. Each of us is teaching one course this semester, which is not unusual here, especially for foreigners. This leaves us time to learn a bit of Swahili and to finish some research projects.

As you can see in the photos below, the buildings are springing out of the ground to accommodate the new students expected each year. All these buildings, including the library, are very close to our house. This is the new campus of SAUT. 

The new administration building

 The new classroom building, with ten very large classrooms

One of the women's hostels, with Lake Victoria in the background; this hostel is across the road from our house

Prayer notes

"Your prayers and gifts to the poor have not gone unnoticed by God"

 (Acts 10.4).

1. We are grateful that so many prayers about our new work in Tanzania are being answered. We have very pleasant working relationships with colleagues in administration, and more particularly in philosophy. Although students use Swahili almost all the time, except for lectures, we find we are managing to get around with what little we know, with gestures and other forms of communication, which work fine when there is goodwill.

2.  We are thankful for the opportunity we had to visit Jos and meet with our graduate students in January and to encourage them in their work. There was some unrest at the time, but reports we have received indicate that things are calming down. Please continue to pray with us for an end to the violence and for true peace for Jos. But last week IICS colleagues who live a few hours driving distance outside of Jos experienced armed robbery; please pray for the Lotzgesells as they cope with the trauma and loss. 

3. We are thankful for the safety in travel we have experienced these last weeks, both internationally and locally. Here in Tanzania we do not have a car, and get around in public mini-buses, which are great for getting us back and forth to the campus from Mwanza for visits, shopping, etc. Please pray for our safety on local transportation.

4. When we first arrived, we were warned that mail by regular post might not get through; but over the past two weeks we have received a number of pieces of mail! On campus we are able to use internet, although it is rather slow much of the time (that's why we are using only our gmail accounts at this time). And our cell phones work fine here. Thank God with us for good communications. 

5. One of our concerns on arrival was to find a worshiping community. During these first weeks we visited some local churches; the singing is almost invariably beautiful, but the services are best described as loud and louder. So we are thankful that we found a local Anglican church which holds a traditional service; the attendance is not large, and the English service is sandwiched in between two services in Swahili which are much better attended. As a result the priest tends to hurry the service somewhat, but we are very thankful that we can understand what is going on! 

The Anglican church in Mwanza, where we worship on Sundays

Thank you for praying with us! 

The challenges of life at SAUT

We were spoiled during the first days of our stay in Mwanza! We experienced water coming from the taps every day, and the electricity being on almost nonstop. Yes, we were warned that we might experience some problems with water and electricity, but those brief interruptions were nothing compared with what has become the norm in Jos, where we talked about the hours when we actually had power, and when water did flow. Well, that wonderful situation did not last. But by the second week of our stay here, the situation went increasingly downhill. First, it was a day or two without water, although still not bad when compared to Jos, where we got water once a week at most. The difference is that in Jos we had large storage tanks for water, while here we only have a few pails of water to tide us over. So three days without water was the limit. During the second week one night without power was not so bad, but this time the power didn’t come back until the end of the day. People at the university explained that only the phase coming to our house was affected; the other phases, which include the women’s hostels across the road from our place, continued to have power. But last weekend we experienced a severe thunderstorm, which seems to have taken down some poles and wires and damaged a transformer. Our phase went out again, this time for a day and a half. We can live with candles for a day or so, and even get warm food at the student cafeteria, but to keep the food in the refrigerator from spoiling we finally brought it to a neighboring house which was not affected. The residents were gracious in even providing hot water for our thermos, so we could make tea on those mornings when we were without power. Our stove is half electrical and half with gas burners, which is ideal for our situation. Unfortunately, the gas tank had not yet been provided, so we were still dependent on electricity for cooking. 

The water tower being installed, concrete was poured around posts

None of these problems are insurmountable. University officials promised to help solve both the water and electrical problems. Already in the first week a tower for the water tank was deposited in the back yard, but it stood up side down there for a few weeks. No water tank was available, we were told; and the gas tank did not materialize either—it was difficult to find the right kind, apparently. But one day, a little over a week ago, the plumber came (there is only one for the whole university), together with his assistant, and they started working on the tower. They put it in place, and a few days later poured concrete around the four legs. “Tomorrow we will bring a water tank,” they promised. And, indeed, they did. It still took several days, but finally this past Friday, March 6, the installation was complete and water started flowing into the tank. Now all the water for the house is routed through the tank, which holds 1000 liters, and we find that water flows in our house, even when the water has been turned off; and we should have enough to cover the emergencies.

That Friday really was a banner day! While the plumber was putting the final touches on the water tank, our Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic, Mfumbusa, came by to deliver a gas tank, with a regulator and hose. He did not have the necessary clips to fasten the hose, so we had to go into Mwanza for that. It was not easy to find the right ones — only one hardware store carried them. But Adrian managed, and that evening we celebrated—to think that our immediate water and cooking-gas problems had been solved on one and the same day! Around supper time the power went off for a while, but it did not bother us much that evening, we were able to prepare our meal at home. We have heard of major problems looming in Tanzania’s provision of electricity, because the demand is more than the available supply, and some transformers which are needed are not available. Thus we are grateful that we will not be so vulnerable now, at least for cooking our meals. 

The newly delivered gas tank that still needed to be installed

The assistant plumber resting after a job well done

We have not managed to overcome all the challenges we face. There are still problems with the working of our cell phones, which is a common problem in Tanzania, as in Nigeria, with the system often overloaded; also with the internet, since we have to walk about half a kilometer to go to a computer room, but again, not insurmountable, though it does limit the opportunity for us to do email. We generally go early in the morning, when there are only a few students online. Later on in the day with heavier use it gets very slow. 

A flower and a bird can brighten our days here

Thus we do have our share of challenges in living here. The university personnel have been very helpful in solving such problems, however, even if it did take a few weeks. We continue to experience a warm reception here, and our teaching seems to be appreciated greatly.

Wendy in front of Bismark Rock, a local attraction

A bird perched not far from Bismark Rock

Arrival in Mwanza

The last leg of our journey of these weeks, the flight to Mwanza on a rather small plane, went without a hitch. We immediately realized that Mwanza, on Lake Victoria, and at a much higher elevation than Dar es Salaam, was also decidedly cooler than Dar. The quality of the air also seemed more like that of Jos, which is on a plateau. 

We were thankful to meet the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, Bernardin Mfumbusa, with whom we had corresponded over the last months. Because the house we were to occupy was not ready (there was some confusion over the date of our arrival), he took us to a local hotel, the Isamo (where we stayed for two nights), and then took us out for dinner at a lovely restaurant, the Tilapia (named for the local fish) which, as we soon realized, was one of the best of Mwanza.

 

View of Lake Victoria from Isamo hotel, looking west

 View of Mwanza from the Isamo, looking south toward the peninsula on which the university is located; like Jos, the city is built on the rocks and is distinctively hilly

Mwanza looking north toward the center of the city

It was raining off and on for the first few days, and was decidedly cool for us. In fact, after the problems with the Johannesburg flight, we had both come down with colds and we really felt the cool breezes! It rains here from time to time, since it is rainy season now. But we discovered that when the sun did come out, it is much hotter than Jos! We are very close to the equator here (about 2 ½ degree south), and the sun is pretty much directly overhead. Starting in early March it will be north of us. So we feel the strength of the sun's rays, and really need to keep suntan lotion on hand here, even if it is cooler than in Dar es Salaam.

The next day Mfumbusa took us around to meet many people whom we needed to get to know on campus, so we got a good look at the facilities, and met so many that it was hard to keep track of them all! 

But we would not forget Timothy, the Nigerian professor of history who is spending his sabbatical year teaching here at SAUT. 

Students were still writing exams to finish the first semester, so things were actually pretty quiet on the grounds for the first few days. This was good for us, because we had to do some shopping. 

On Friday morning, first thing, the SAUT driver, Sylvester, took us to see the house, right smack in the middle of the campus, near the women’s hostels, not far from the classrooms and the imposing new library building. We discovered that the house already had some basic furniture, three beds, a dining room set and living room furniture and lerned that the refrigerator and stove would be delivered later that day. The house had been left stripped of everything by the former occupant, who had moved into Mwanza. After seeing it, we went shopping for pots and pans, plates, silverware and other basic kitchen equipment, as well as a first installment of groceries. 

When we got back to the house after doing our shopping, we discovered that the stove and refrigerator had arrived, and were happy that the electrician also came to make sure everything was properly connected. That night we were able to cook a simple meal, get a shower, and sleep in new beds with new sheets! It was especially wonderful to be able to unpack our bags after all these weeks of travel. It would take us numerous trips into Mwanza over the next days to finish shopping for the basics, but we were thankful to have a good head start on the matter. 

We were thankful too that Sylvester was with us when we went shopping the first time, because Swahili is a new language for us. Although the lectures at the university will be in English, everywhere else people speak Swahili! It would have been difficult for us to get the shopping done without some help. 

The women's hostels, our nearest neighbors on campus 

We soon discovered that the impressive new building (only two years old) which features prominently on the SAUT website is the library 

Our home on campus

Adrian at our back door, which is also our main door 

On Saturday we took a bit of time to explore our immediate surroundings, and Adrian was brave enough to take a ride into Mwanza with the local mini-bus, called ‘dala-dala’; they take about 20 passengers (although it seems there is always room for one more!). The cost is reasonable enough, the equivalent of about 30 cents for a 10 km ride into town. The alternative is taxis, which cost about $10 from town to the university. We do that when it is late at night, and thus not safe in a dala-dala, or when we have too much to carry. We do not intend to buy a car for these few months, so these kinds of transportation allow us to get around fairly well. 

A mini bus is know locally as a 'dala-dala'; each route has its own station in the center of the city

We also discovered that we do not need to go into Mwanza for all our purchases. Between the university (located on a peninsula of lake Victoria, outside of Mwanza) and the lake there are roads, and houses, and even some villages; as we took some walks over the next few days we found that people sell fruits, vegetables and other daily necessities like bread, and at prices that are comparable to what we pay in town. That will certainly simplify life for us the next few months. 

Area roads near university

The university is located in a rather rural and agricultural setting 

We are beginning to settle into a new routine. Unlike Jos, we do not have household help here. Our house is smaller, with a kitchen, dining room, living room and three small bedrooms. At the moment it rains rather frequently and it is not too hot yet nor too dusty either; so we can keep things under control. Water runs fairly consistently, though we have had days when it was ‘off’ more than ‘on’; we have been promised a water-holding tank, which will be helpful. Electricity has been fairly consistent, although the voltage fluctuates considerably, and we have had some evenings when it went off, and even one day when we had no power at all. 

We do not have the 12-volt backup systems that we had in Jos, so when the power is off we have to manage with candles and flashlights. At the moment our stove is electrical, though it has provision for gas burners; we hope to get a tank hooked up soon, so at least we can do some cooking when the power is off. So there are still some basics which need attention here! 

Settling into a routine in our new Malimbe campus home 

But our main assignment is to teach in the Department of Philosophy. We were introduced to the head of the department, Aidan Msafiri, on the first day, and discussed the courses we were to teach. Adrian’s MA class on the history of political ideas started on Monday, Feb. 16. Wendy is teaching introduction to philosophy, which also introduces the students to ancient philosophy. This course started on Friday, Feb. 13. The students had little time to recoup their energies after exams before starting the new semester. In fact, there were only a few students who showed up; the rest of the 122 students came along for first main lecture the next Wednesday (Feb. 18)! We are getting the matter of textbooks and basic readings straightened out. Textbooks do not seem to be available at all for the students to buy. The library simply has multiple copies of basic texts, and students will probably have to photocopy some sections for themselves. But like Nigeria, this is an oral culture, and we expect that the really important teaching will be done in the classroom. 

Karibu means Welcome! We certainly feel warmly welcomed at SAUT

Further travel update

When we left Jos on the first of February, we flew to Lagos to connect with South African Airlines taking us to Johannesburg and from there, the next day to Dar es Salaam (we took the long way to Dar, via Johannesburg mainly because that was far cheaper than the short route via Kenya). We arrived in Lagos late in the afternoon, checked in for our flight to Johannesburg, and waited in that rather unattractive airport for many hours. When it was finally time to board, we were informed that the plane was late in arriving. But, as we were to discover later, there were other problems….

This was the 747 that we took from Lagos  to Johannesburg--it was later being towed away after our arrival.

We waited for more than an hour in sweltering heat in long lines in a miserably small room with very few seats, obviously meant for far fewer people than those planning to fly to Johannesburg that night. The air-conditioning in the airport was not working properly, or it could not cope with the numbers of people. Later we discovered that the reason why we could not depart was because the air-conditioning system on the plane had broken down. When we were finally allowed to board that system had still not been repaired, and we discovered that the heat in the airport was nothing compared to that on the plane. Once we were airborne the cabins cooled down considerably, so we went from one extreme to another. We arrived in Johannesburg the next morning somewhat tired after all that. But, fortunately, the airport in Johannesburg is newly renovated (in preparation for the 2010 World Cup games) and we were able to get a good breakfast and some much needed coffee to keep us awake for our flight to Dar es Salaam in the afternoon.

We knew that the flight to Johannesberg would be a night flight, and had decided in advance to spend a day in Dar es Salaam before continuing on to Mwanza, both to catch our breath (and catch up on sleep), and acquaint ourselves, if briefly, with Dar, the largest city of Tanzania. We arrived in Dar early in the evening and stood in line for about an hour while our visas for Tanzania were being prepared. After we picked up our luggage, we were very happy to be greeted by Rachel Brink, a CRWRC volunteer, who drove us to the Catholic guest house where we are staying for two nights, until leaving for Mwanza on Wednesday.

Our room in the guest house is in center of the photo; Adrian

The next day we went to the CRWRC office, where we met the rest of the staff, especially theTanzania country representative for CRWRC, Margaret Njuguna,  who gave us an overview of the work CRWRC was doing in Tanzania. 

Margaret gave us some good tips for successful work in Tanzania

Then Rachel took us on a tour of Dar es Salaam, and we treated her to lunch; she took us to a lovely Indian restaurant. We also bought a new phone for Wendy and a new SIM card for Adrian so his old phone could work in Tanzania. By the way, Dar means 'port'; thus Dar es Salaam is 'peaceful port.'

Rachel took us to a spot in Dar with a good view of the ocean

One of the main attractions of Dar is its location on the Indian Ocean, and we appreciated the breeze and the view, although Dar has few good beaches. Back in the guest house we were thankful that we could make use of a wireless connection, to let family and colleagues know that we had arrived safe and well.

Travel update

It is hard to believe that it has been more than two weeks ago since we left Canada; so much has happened in the meantime. After two overnight flights, first from Toronto, and again from London, giving us very little sleep, it was good to arrive in Abuja. The flight with BA was more economical than others, but meant a rather long and tedious day waiting in Terminal 5, the new BA terminal at Heathrow; unlike the older Terminal 4 where we used to arrive, there were no comfortable chairs on which to rest; the builders obviously wanted us to keep moving, or shop at their ritzy shops with overpriced goods! Once in Abuja, our driver wasted no time in taking us to Jos, where we arrived before noon. 

For the first three days we stayed at the CRC guest house, and soon settled in. The day after our arrival we already welcomed three of our doctoral students, and we saw the other three not long after, during the following week, when we had moved back into our old house at the university. We discovered that while we were away, Chikas, one of our students, had been successful in her application to finish her studies in Germany, and we were able to congratulate her on a handsome scholarship! And Dauda, one of Wendy's students in New Testament, has also made progress on his research at the South African university of Kwasu Natal, and will be able to finish doctoral work there. So it now looks like we still have responsibilities for two students, Adrian for Cosmos and Dennis, Wendy for Kate (who is only in beginning stages of her work), and Rebecca.

Us, with our doctoral students Cosmos, Kate, and Dennis

We are still listed as faculty in our department at Unijos--disregard the spelling of Adrian's name, which happened repeatedly

Wendy was able to spend considerable time with Rebecca Dali, who was also able to make the first of three required presentations. It went quite well, and we are thankful for this. 

Rebecca at her seminar, from left to right: Chikas, colleagues Ibrahim Musa, Umar Danfulani (former HOD), Danny McCain, Musa Gaiya (former HOD also), Dennis, Wendy, Rebecca, Adrian, Kate, and colleague Pauline Lere

We spent about two weeks back in the house we used to occupy, which has been used by IICS colleagues who are in Jos from time to time to teach, or take a break from their own locations. It felt somewhat strange for us to be back in the home where we spent the last six years. The basic furniture that belonged to the university was still there, but most of our own belongings were gone; we sold them when we left about eight months ago. So at first we had the impression we were just camping in the place where we had lived so long. Yet there were enough of our old things left for us to feel at home again after a few days. It was also helpful that some IICS colleagues stayed with us for several days. By living together we got to know them better than we had before.

During these weeks it was a special joy to have Angelina helping us, and to welcome our longtime helper, Julie (and her daughter Sharon) back to our house again too. 

Jos itself had not changed much, except that we noticed many buildings burned down in our area of Northern Jos, including several churches where we had worshipped. Zaria Road, a main artery from the North to the centre of the city, had changed the most, since it was being widened. In addition, parts of this road were lined with hulks of hundreds of burnt out cars and trucks, including a few fire engines. These businesses were owned by Muslims. Other businesses owned by Christians were destroyed as well. Although many churches had been burnt, we saw no mosques that had been leveled, although there may have been some. The latest Jos crisis was supposedly political, but many people wonder why, then, so many houses of worship and businesses were targeted, but no government buildings? Many people we talked to in Jos have theories about the reasons for this crisis, which was much worse than the one in 2001, a few days before 9/11, but no one knows for sure, and it is by no means clear also who was responsible for organizing the killing and burning. A number of commissions were immediately formed to analyze the recent crisis, but even so the answer will not necessarily emerge. The report of the commission that examined the 2001 crisis has never been published.

Below are a few more scenes from the devastation in Jos during the riots last November. It includes scenes of the burning of buildings, cars, and Trinity Anglican Church (where we worshipped for a few years).