Compositions from Tanzania

It wasn't possible for our friends in Tanzania to post their compositions themselves. Good Mr Bosco, their teacher, scanned their texts. Here they are (click the text and the link opens).

What is good life?

The concept of good life cannot be defined, or can it? Is my idea of good life different from yours? Are there differences not only between individuals but also cultures?

To study the matter we launched an international writing project. Students in Finland, Tanzania and the US are writing essays on What is good life. Within the following weeks their ideas will be published here. You're welcome to comment on them!

FACE TO FACE WITH AN ELEPHANT, Haukipudas students in Tanzania

The group of 21 students, four teachers and two parents left for Tanzania on June 3. 2012. It was so exciting! We would finally meet our friends in Dar es Salaam, get to see Zanzibar and do a safari in the north.

In Dar es Salaam we were greeted by some pupils from our partner school, their teacher Mr John Bosco, Ms Modester Mwinula from the UNESCO and our guides Peter and Jonathan Mbise. We spent the first day at Jangwani Secondary School. What a great day it was! All students mingled and were very eager to talk and share information. I wonder if they had ever studied languages with such an interest. Jangwani students and teachers had arranged great shows and presentations for us. Later that day students played basketball together.

photo by Esa Posio

 We naturally took along some gifts for the school. A digital video camera, a laptop computer and some school supplies were received with great interest. But giving and receiving gifts was not as important as bonding. All people at Jangwani made us feel very welcome and I am sure we built friendships that will last.

The next day we spent a few hours at school again and met a local school authority. Later we were taken to Bogomayo to see the Kaole Ruins. At the same time a couple of students and teachers visited another school, Mtakuja Secondary School, and a day care. Both visits were certainly memorable.

Photo by Eveliina Nurro

Next on our agenda was to take a morning ferry to Zanzibar, a paradise island. At our destination we swam in the hotel pool, which was true luxury compared to our previous hostel. In the afternoon we were taken to the Stone Town, a famous World Heritage Site. We saw beautiful doors, mosques, market places and a slave market place. “Zanzibar was a bit scruffy but interesting. The noices, scents and colours literally took us to a different world.”

”Another early morning. We got on a bus and headed for the Dolphin Bay Resort. The scenery was breathtaking: white sand, palm trees and clear water! We took small boats out to the ocean. After some cruising back and forth our friends appeared, first one, then small groups and finally swarms of 20 dolphins.” With snorkels and flippers we jumped repeatedly to the ocean to swim with the magnificent creatures. “After the lunch there was still some time to swim and lie on the beach. In the evening we had plenty of free time and so we went shopping. Truly a memorable day.”

”The alarm went off at 4.45 am. Tired faces. After getting back to Dar es Salaam we drove to an orphanage. There were over 100 children aged from two to 20 years living there. We played and talked with the children. Our students with blond hair were “reserved” instantly.” Some of the younger children were a bit of afraid of us first but most of them glued themselves to our sides. We heard touching stories of their life and future plans. Kurasini Orphanage takes good care of the children but needs help desperately in order to manage with their obligations. School fees need to be paid and there is no medication. The children’s clothing is washed by hand and many of them have no shoes. Of all the items we brought with us, football shoes were the biggest hit. Haukipudas Upper Secondary school will continue assisting the orphanage with our partners in Finland.

”Later after the dinner there was little time for anything but for packing our backpacks. In the morning we got up early again and started our way towards Mount Kilimanjaro! It was a long but beautiful drive. When we woke up in the north, the weather was beautiful and birds were singing. Still sleepy we crawled out from our rooms at the Ndoro Hunters Lodge to have breakfast.  There was a cheerful shout in the lobby: Good morning, Mr. Lauri! That really cheered up the sleepy boy. We got onto several jeeps and started our safari to Serengeti and Ngorongoro, which everybody had already been looking forward to. Already on the way to the park we saw baboons running over the road, zebras and giraffes standing and eating a few metres from our vehicles. We saw ostriches, gazelles and jackals. The highlight of our first safari day was to see three lions in a tree and elephants next to our car. Awesome! After reaching the camp we put up our tents on the savannah, sat at a camp fire and listened to a hyena howling right next to us. At night there was a lion roaring close to our camp and baboons took a trip between our tents.”

The whole group

Photo by Esa Posio

”The safari continued and we saw more animals than we had dared to hope for: hyenas, wart hogs, buffaloes, wildebeests. In the evening one of us was going to the toiled at the camp and came face to face with an elephant. At night it was very cold and damp in the mountains. After the morning safari we started our journey back but on the way to the Lodge we stopped to buy souvenirs and gifts.  When this fabulous day was ending we had to say good bye to our wonderful safari staff. We missed them right away.” We were very lucky with the animals and came across also some species that are more difficult to spot. With our binoculars we managed to see a leopard in a tree and a rhino with her baby in the grass. We saw a crocodile and hippos, not to mention a huge number of different birds. On the safari we had the best meals of the whole trip, which is an accomplishment in primitive conditions.

“On the last day we visited Nkoaranga village on Mount Meru. We took some backpacks and baby clothes with us. We could easily have spent another week or two in Tanzania! “

The trip was even better than we had hoped for. We saw varying nature and old cultures. We watched a lion right into the eyes, we took part in celebrations, dance and singing. The warmth of Tanzanian people and the way they care for each other and visitors was touching. The country is one of the poorest in the world and other people create their social security. Our own abundant life style started to make us sick while so many Tanzanians get by with so little. We also learned a lot of ourselves. We were on an emotional roller coaster. We learned patience and respect for other cultures and people. Now we truly appreciate our comfortable life but learned to adapt to prevailing conditions as well. Everybody got more courage to use foreign languages, too. The group felt really good under the warmth of the African sun and amongst themselves. Our hearts were left on the savannah.

We are looking forward to our next adventure in Tanzania!

students:

Olivia Greus   

Vilma Haapala  

Niilo Heinonen  

Salla Kolehmainen   

Ilari Kujala  

Ida Latvakoski 

Eetu Laukka  

Marko Moilanen 

Nadja Mortti    

Lauri Nisula 

Eveliina Nurro   

Salla Ojala     

Essi Pohjonen          

Jenni Posio 

Eveliina Satomaa  

Eeva Savilaakso   

Elina Savilaakso 

Pirita Väinämö   

Eetu Väänänen   

Laura Ylipahkala   

Juho-Pekka Ylisirniö        

teachers:

Anja Moilanen

Tiina Fredriksson

Anna Metsävainio

Marja Iskanius

parents:

Esa Posio

Rauno Moilanen    

-       by AMO, based on the journals written by the students

On June 3rd 2012 our group of 21 students, four teachers and two parents will head for Tanzania. HOORAY!

ICT PROJECT BETWEEN JANGWANI SECONDARY SCHOOL IN TANZANIA AND HAUKIPUDAS SECONDARY SCHOOL IN FINLAND

Jangwani Secondary School 1925-2011

1.0                       INTRODUCTION

The project started as a product of good relationship built between UNESCO National Commission of the United Republic of Tanzania; ASP-net Coordination unit on one hand and the English Teachers’ Association of Finland on the other.  Madam Modester Mwinula, the ASP-net National Coordinator’s visit to Madam Anne Ontero the President of English Teachers’ Association in Oulu Finland in 2007, laid the foundation of the friendship between the two schools. The schools are currently working together closely.  The Twinning project between Jangwani Secondary school from Dar es Salaam Tanzania and Haukipudas Secondary School from Oulu Finland therefore, is a result of this relationship. Both schools coordinate the project under the umbrella of UNESCO ASP net.

The UNESCO National Commission of Tanzania has been working together with other government organizations in order to improve education sector in the country at all levels; from primary to secondary education levels. Under this same spirit, UNESCO National Commission of Tanzania office, paired Jangwani Secondary school with Haukipudas Secondary School of Oulu Finland to implement the Twinning project centered on ICT as a key project of the friendship. Haukipudas Secondary school intends to provide internet connection to Jangwani Secondary school so as to make education communication easier between them.

Mr. Kullervo Leinonen the then Principal of Haukipudas Secondary School, agreed to run a friendship project with a school from Tanzania.  Madam Anja Moilanen, the English teacher and ASPnet school coordinator at Haukipudas became the coordinator of the twinning project in Finland and Mr. John Bosco from Jangwani Dar es salaam, Tanzania work together  in guiding students to implement the between the two schools. These two teachers have always been looking for the easiest way of communicating in order to make the friendship grow fast, thus they found it very difficult as Jangwani secondary school was not connected to the internet hence they came up with an idea of having the ICT project based on Internet connection for Jangwani secondary school.

2.0                       A LINK BETWEEN THE TWO SCHOOLS

The two schools had been facing a very hard time as Haukipudas was working very hard in collecting funds for facilitating the project at Jangwani and Jangwani was facing two problems; first, the students were not introduced to ICT Studies so they were very poor in communicating with Haukipudas through emails. Mr. John Bosco therefore has been taking the burden of communicating with Anja Moilanen all the time on his own to make sure that their uppermost effort brings the intended fruits in the near future.

3.0                       A GROWING SPIRIT FOR THE NEW HOPE

It was real a growing spirit for the new hope that cropped up between Jangwani Secondary school and Haukipudas Secondary school when Jangwani managed to get some 20 pieces of computers from Tanzania Education Authority (TEA). This was a very good start for ICT studies at school. Students enjoyed the computer studies at and showed great interest in learning computers though the computers were not connected to the internet services as the school had no money for connection.

Haukipudas Secondary School was surprised getting that news on the absence of computer, because to them every student has an access to computer, so they promised to provide financial support to make sure that Jangwani gets connected to the internet and have more computers.

Previously, Jangwani Secondary School received 20 pieces of computers from Agumba Company but the computers had no hard Disks thus Haukipudas School donated Euro 800 to Jangwani for buying 20 pieces of hard disks for those computers. Getting that aid from our friends was very much appreciated by the whole school, a situstion that made those computers work as soon as possible.

Apart from financial support for computer hard discs, Haukipudas School also gave Jangwani Secondary School Euro 450 for supporting a disabled student “Fatuma Msechu” who is an orphan.  This was even more appreciated and encouraging for getting such an aid which made Fatuma Msechu get a new hope for her studies and improve her efforts to make sure that she does very good in her studies in order not to discourage her sponsors from Haukipudas.

4.0                       THE WAY TO SUCCESS

Jangwani Secondary School on her way to success, managed to get some more 10 pieces of computers from British Council of Tanzania. There after the school managed to raise funds and connected itself to the Internet services through Tanzania Telephone Company Limited “TTCL”. Few days later, the school failed to run the internet services due to lack of funds as the internet was not commercial but lather a free service for the academic purpose intended for the students and staff members only. Thus Haukipudas School heard the loud cry for internet from Jangwani, and contributed Euro 1200 for running internet services for the whole of 2011. Jangwani received the money in September 2011 and managed to revive the internet services so as to enjoy the communication with their friends from Haukipudas which is a great bridge built between Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Oulu, Finland.

Apart from the Internet connection Haukipudas Secondary school managed to send Euro 500 for Fatuma Msechu who is now completing her form four in the year 2011. Fatuma Msechu is doing very fine among the disabled students who are studying at Jangwani Secondary school.

5.0                       FACE TO FACE CONTACT

Jangwani secondary school is thirstily waiting to meet their friends from Haukipudas School early June, 2012 in Dar es Salaam. The students will met at Jangwani Secondary School where the two schools will cherish and enjoy the good time together making funny and doing so many activities in common so as to know each other very well.

It is well known that Haukipudas is coming to visit Jangwani Secondary School this year, students and staff members from Jangwani are preparing some activities to be done together with their friends making the days of their stay here at our school memorable, enjoyable and unforgettable to both of us we mean Jangwani and Haukipudas.

Also the school is preparing the school web site which can be inaugurated when our friends will be here at school so as to make the school being found easily by their friends and all people who intend to support the school by any means. We are sure that UNESCO National Commission of Tanzania through the ASP net will give us a hand of support as their custom to make sure that the school is running the web site all the time without failure.

Apart from that the school is running the Environmental project around the school by planting grasses to protect the environment and make it attractive to the people who are staying at school and those who are visiting the school. This project is being coordinate by British Council of Tanzania.

Also the school is running a fishpond project; this is being used for academic purposes especially for leaning Biology subject as a meaningful teaching aid for teachers. In the pond there are different kinds of fish as required by learners to be used for different scientific experiment being conducted during their lessons depending on the topic and class as our school is having both Ordinary and Advanced Level classes. We managed to get the fund for making the fish pond by using our own resources without getting donation from any body.

Prepared by

J. Bosco,

Jangwani Secondary School