Sunday, October 10, 2004
Friday, Oct 8
Yesterday was a day that made up for my several weeks of despondency because nothing seemed to be happening. First, I got a letter from Esther in Mwanga. Remember that my sister misaddressed two letters to me – sent them to Mwanga instead of Mwanza. “Ester” got them and tracked me down with a lot of effort. I sent her a self-addressed envelope with stamps and stuff so she could send Arlene’s letters to me. But they never arrived anyway. A week or so ago she called to ask me if I had gotten them, and I said no. So yesterday I received this letter, registered, typed in blue ink:
P.O. Box 281 – T.C.C.I.A.
MWANGA, KILIMANJARO
28th SEPT. 2004
Dear Lee,
I know you don’t want to hear from me again. I apologise to what happened, I ask you to be kind and consider the situation. This is out of my power.
God knows how effort I made. And this is so strange to me, why those letters lost for the second time: May be it was because the mail was heavy and the postal people thought that there is money in it, that is why they steel it. I didn’t sleep for those past two weeks. I know you cannot trust me again, but I have nothing more to make you believe me.
Any way, still I have a copy of a letter which I wrote to you with Arlene’s address which she wrote in front of the envelope (the lost letters).
[Arlene’s address]
P/se write to her and tell her the whole story, may be she can write again what was supposed to be in that lost letters (two letters).
I now regret, why I tried to find you, because what I expected is not what I get. I lost all: your letters, my letter (which I enclosed in that envelope) and also I lost you. You cannot trust me any more. My office mate laugh at me, they say: Why do you bother to find that guy and now see what you received?. But I believe in God that: I quote; Always love all the people like you love yourself”. This sentence forced me to locate you.
I like to invite you to my home.(with your wife if any) I need to know you. I live in my own house, don’t worry of any thing. I’m a business woman (dealing with Mining – Gemstones). A mother ( but not married in my life). Just come as mother and son or sister and brother / a friend.
My area where I live is not far from Moshi Town. If you accept my Invitation, Please! inform me so we can arrange how to recognise each other.
Lee dear, this is the best way to have a good records, what you had done when you are in Africa / Tanzania .To meet and to make more friends with different people, place, tribes, culture etc.
T.C.C.I.A above means: Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. I think you heard it in Televisions, Magazines etc. Also Mwanza had such Chambers. All Tanzania Regions and Districts had T.C.C.I.A chamber offices. Dar- Es- Salaam is our T.C.C.I.A Head quarters. In Mwange T.C.C.I.A, I work as a Treasurer of the chamber.
Again I apologise for any inconvenience I coursed you.
Please ! Lee, I beg you to reply to me, to assure me that you forgive me.
Yours, Anxious to hear from you,
Esther Y. Madio.
[end of letter]
I guess I will have to reassure the lady that I appreciate her efforts and do not blame her for the shortcomings of the Tanzania PO.
Then I rode my bike downtown to do some errands, and made a followup call to see if I could arrange an appointment to talk with the Director of VETA – the head of the government Vocational Education and Training Authority, Lake Region. The answer was “Yes, if you come right away.” So I hopped on a daladala for the 10 km trip to VETA. I found a sizeable campus with offices, dormitories and large separate buildings for teaching plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, masonry, plumbing, and hotel management. It is quite an operation, and this is only one of several regional facilities. Students enter after completing middle school or high school to learn a trade.
I was ushered into the office of Enock Kibendela, a large, impressive man who carries his authority comfortably and easily. He listened attentively to my presentation of the vision and plans I have been developing to teach entrepreneurship (economic empowerment) to students and school leavers. Then he brought in his Labour Market Analyst, A. J. Ngonyani, and we talked for about an hour and a half.
It seems that VETA has a mandate to teach entrepreneurship as part of its program, but it has never worked well because they have no teachers who understand the concept. Not a surprise! Still, the Government is working to develop a new program and so there is a high degree of interest right now.
But the Gov’t will take a long time to form the curriculum committees, study the problem, report to oversight committees, “harmonize” the conclusions, etc etc. So, if there is an existing program that can be implemented on a pilot basis, Kibendela is very interested in giving it a go – “What do we do next?”
Wow! Is this really still Tanzania?
My next stop was to drop in on Ralph Hoeninger, head of the regional office of the Dutch NGO: SNV. SNV offers its intellectual services (but no money) to good causes to assist organizational and development efforts. I talked to him about how to set up the program in such a way that I am not the center of it, and how to provide the best chance of its continuing after I leave in a year (sustainability). He had good ideas: Work with a steering committee that I am not the head of even if that sounds painful, be sure to have TWO teachers for every class in case one drops out/is transferred/whatever, have a Tanzanian with you for all meetings, and occasionally be unavailable at the last minute.
He downloaded my information about teaching marketing to fish farmers in Zambia, and in return he is giving me a copy of a CD directory of economic development programs.
Then back to town for those errands I wanted to do and to the internet café to continue the dialog with Myrna about her trip to Africa that now seems like less than a sure thing.
Biked back home. Took a shower. Then grabbed a daladala back to Mwanza to meet Eric Ibrahim, a friend of my cousins back in Pennsylvania who had invited me to dinner at his home. Eric is an architect, but works for the UN Development Agency on a program to identify ways to increase jobs in Tanzania or something like that. He lives in a nice home with his wife and three kids, and dreams of going out on his own as an architect. We had a good meal – Nile perch and chicken, rice and spaghetti, with a cabbage and pineapple salad, then talked until 1:00 in the morning. Vivian dropped in and out of the room and the conversation, but I think she had heard most of our opinions before, and didn’t need it again. But for me it was interesting to share cultural differences and perceptions. We talked a lot about the problems for economic development in Tanzania, and agreed that the socialist history of the country is a mind-set that will only be overcome slowly.
But last night was also the 2nd presidential debate. So I slept across with Eric and Vivian in a bedroom that probably belongs to one of their kids although you wouldn’t know it because it lacked toys on the floor and posters on the walls. They rolled their TV into the bedroom for me, so I had the luxury (pain?) of watching the debate live on CNN at 4:00 in the morning.
I didn’t think anybody “won” this one, and that seems to the initial assessment I hear from the BBC on shortwave radio today too.
Yesterday was a day that made up for my several weeks of despondency because nothing seemed to be happening. First, I got a letter from Esther in Mwanga. Remember that my sister misaddressed two letters to me – sent them to Mwanga instead of Mwanza. “Ester” got them and tracked me down with a lot of effort. I sent her a self-addressed envelope with stamps and stuff so she could send Arlene’s letters to me. But they never arrived anyway. A week or so ago she called to ask me if I had gotten them, and I said no. So yesterday I received this letter, registered, typed in blue ink:
P.O. Box 281 – T.C.C.I.A.
MWANGA, KILIMANJARO
28th SEPT. 2004
Dear Lee,
I know you don’t want to hear from me again. I apologise to what happened, I ask you to be kind and consider the situation. This is out of my power.
God knows how effort I made. And this is so strange to me, why those letters lost for the second time: May be it was because the mail was heavy and the postal people thought that there is money in it, that is why they steel it. I didn’t sleep for those past two weeks. I know you cannot trust me again, but I have nothing more to make you believe me.
Any way, still I have a copy of a letter which I wrote to you with Arlene’s address which she wrote in front of the envelope (the lost letters).
[Arlene’s address]
P/se write to her and tell her the whole story, may be she can write again what was supposed to be in that lost letters (two letters).
I now regret, why I tried to find you, because what I expected is not what I get. I lost all: your letters, my letter (which I enclosed in that envelope) and also I lost you. You cannot trust me any more. My office mate laugh at me, they say: Why do you bother to find that guy and now see what you received?. But I believe in God that: I quote; Always love all the people like you love yourself”. This sentence forced me to locate you.
I like to invite you to my home.(with your wife if any) I need to know you. I live in my own house, don’t worry of any thing. I’m a business woman (dealing with Mining – Gemstones). A mother ( but not married in my life). Just come as mother and son or sister and brother / a friend.
My area where I live is not far from Moshi Town. If you accept my Invitation, Please! inform me so we can arrange how to recognise each other.
Lee dear, this is the best way to have a good records, what you had done when you are in Africa / Tanzania .To meet and to make more friends with different people, place, tribes, culture etc.
T.C.C.I.A above means: Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. I think you heard it in Televisions, Magazines etc. Also Mwanza had such Chambers. All Tanzania Regions and Districts had T.C.C.I.A chamber offices. Dar- Es- Salaam is our T.C.C.I.A Head quarters. In Mwange T.C.C.I.A, I work as a Treasurer of the chamber.
Again I apologise for any inconvenience I coursed you.
Please ! Lee, I beg you to reply to me, to assure me that you forgive me.
Yours, Anxious to hear from you,
Esther Y. Madio.
[end of letter]
I guess I will have to reassure the lady that I appreciate her efforts and do not blame her for the shortcomings of the Tanzania PO.
Then I rode my bike downtown to do some errands, and made a followup call to see if I could arrange an appointment to talk with the Director of VETA – the head of the government Vocational Education and Training Authority, Lake Region. The answer was “Yes, if you come right away.” So I hopped on a daladala for the 10 km trip to VETA. I found a sizeable campus with offices, dormitories and large separate buildings for teaching plumbing, electrical work, carpentry, masonry, plumbing, and hotel management. It is quite an operation, and this is only one of several regional facilities. Students enter after completing middle school or high school to learn a trade.
I was ushered into the office of Enock Kibendela, a large, impressive man who carries his authority comfortably and easily. He listened attentively to my presentation of the vision and plans I have been developing to teach entrepreneurship (economic empowerment) to students and school leavers. Then he brought in his Labour Market Analyst, A. J. Ngonyani, and we talked for about an hour and a half.
It seems that VETA has a mandate to teach entrepreneurship as part of its program, but it has never worked well because they have no teachers who understand the concept. Not a surprise! Still, the Government is working to develop a new program and so there is a high degree of interest right now.
But the Gov’t will take a long time to form the curriculum committees, study the problem, report to oversight committees, “harmonize” the conclusions, etc etc. So, if there is an existing program that can be implemented on a pilot basis, Kibendela is very interested in giving it a go – “What do we do next?”
Wow! Is this really still Tanzania?
My next stop was to drop in on Ralph Hoeninger, head of the regional office of the Dutch NGO: SNV. SNV offers its intellectual services (but no money) to good causes to assist organizational and development efforts. I talked to him about how to set up the program in such a way that I am not the center of it, and how to provide the best chance of its continuing after I leave in a year (sustainability). He had good ideas: Work with a steering committee that I am not the head of even if that sounds painful, be sure to have TWO teachers for every class in case one drops out/is transferred/whatever, have a Tanzanian with you for all meetings, and occasionally be unavailable at the last minute.
He downloaded my information about teaching marketing to fish farmers in Zambia, and in return he is giving me a copy of a CD directory of economic development programs.
Then back to town for those errands I wanted to do and to the internet café to continue the dialog with Myrna about her trip to Africa that now seems like less than a sure thing.
Biked back home. Took a shower. Then grabbed a daladala back to Mwanza to meet Eric Ibrahim, a friend of my cousins back in Pennsylvania who had invited me to dinner at his home. Eric is an architect, but works for the UN Development Agency on a program to identify ways to increase jobs in Tanzania or something like that. He lives in a nice home with his wife and three kids, and dreams of going out on his own as an architect. We had a good meal – Nile perch and chicken, rice and spaghetti, with a cabbage and pineapple salad, then talked until 1:00 in the morning. Vivian dropped in and out of the room and the conversation, but I think she had heard most of our opinions before, and didn’t need it again. But for me it was interesting to share cultural differences and perceptions. We talked a lot about the problems for economic development in Tanzania, and agreed that the socialist history of the country is a mind-set that will only be overcome slowly.
But last night was also the 2nd presidential debate. So I slept across with Eric and Vivian in a bedroom that probably belongs to one of their kids although you wouldn’t know it because it lacked toys on the floor and posters on the walls. They rolled their TV into the bedroom for me, so I had the luxury (pain?) of watching the debate live on CNN at 4:00 in the morning.
I didn’t think anybody “won” this one, and that seems to the initial assessment I hear from the BBC on shortwave radio today too.
