Yesterday was the 4th of July. I wore a red, white and blue shirt and got a double beefburger of sorts in Mwanza, followed by an ersatz chocolate sundae. Then came back home.
I made another teaching strikeout today. My class wanted new material? OK, today I went in with a flip-chart presentation on Soil Chemistry. In my first class, I had five students. In the second class, no students.
The five students, at least, said that the information was good and useful. But they said most of the students only want to spend time in the laboratory in these between-term sessions.
So where is my responsibility? To present the material in an acceptable fashion and to hell with how or if it is received? To give the students what they think they want even if they are not getting what they need? I guess the only thing I can add is that I don’t see much evidence of anything else useful that is going on for the students just now. But then, it is a drag to be hanging around here not accomplishing anything when I could at least be visiting other volunteers and sites around Tanzania, instead of sitting here reading yet more books from the library I inherited. Right now I am reading Ahab’s Wife, and really enjoying it. Naslund is a wonderful spinner of tales. And yesterday I borrowed a thick book on The Sikh Religion from the Gurdwara.
Joe has been visiting for a couple of days, and plans to head out tomorrow to Rwanda. Kara was here for a day last week. Visiting people is good, but I don’t have much interest in traveling within Tanzania to see just one more dusty town with one more crowded market of local produce near its center.
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Gotta add a few words about all the recent activity about Aid to Africa – the big Geldorf concerts, Tony Blair’s push for debt reduction, much increased international aid… Of course nobody will turn down free money, so the official responses from African governments seems to be: Yes this is good but it is still not enough, and how do I get my hands on the money. But in the newspapers, I am reading many commentators who are saying that money and donations will not help Africa and will may make things worse, and what is needed is technical assistance to help stop corruption, build infrastructure, and teach economic development.
It blew me away to read the newspapers, quoting Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, at the meeting of the 53 African Union nations just preceding the big G-8 meeting in Scotland: Begging will not make the future of Africa, it creates a greater gap between the great [nations] and the small ones. We are not going to beg at the doorstep [of the G-8 meeting] to reduce debt. We are insulted constantly and we deserve it. We don’t need [conditional] assistance and charity. I would not accept that. BULLY FOR HIM!!!! Lord, I think we still consider Gaddafi a terrorist leader!
# posted by Leroy Forney @ 11:49 AM
