My fourth visit to Tanzania and I must confess, I really didn't know anything about Bagamoyo. As I tell you about it, you will realise why I feel embarrassed about knowing so little of Tanzanias most important history.

This town lies along the coast to the north of Dar es Salaam. 

As you can see from the map it is just across from the island of Zanzibar. This town was at the end of a long trade route from the centre of Africa. From Bagamoyo slaves, ivory, salt and copra were transported by sea around the world. 

Yes slaves. People were captured all over Africa and marched for hundreds of miles to Bagamoyo and other cities on the coast to be transported to other countries to be sold as slaves. We know now that this is very wrong and is illegal in nearly every country in the world. However back in the early to mid 1800's, capturing and selling slaves was a big business. The slaves who arrived in Bagamoyo were shipped to Zanzibar where they were sold in the Slave Markets. 
In 1868 French missionaries established Freedom Village at Bagamoyo as a shelter for freed slaves. These slaves had been bought by the missionaries and were now free to live as human beings again. Unfortunately a lot of these former slaves had not lived in freedom for years, had been marched hundreds of miles from their homes and did not know how to return home. At the time, most African people lived in tribes and did not mix beyond their own tribe.  Each tribe spoke their own language and had their own customs. Going back was really not an option as it was so far, they were not sure where they came from and their families had all been killed or taken as slaves. 
The missionaries set up schools and workshops educating the freed slaves and teaching them vocational skills to enable them to work and support themselves. 
From 1887 to 1891 Bagamoyo was actually the capital of German East Africa but in 1991 the capital was transferred to Dar es Salaam. 

I first heard of Churwi in 2008 I think, it was confirmation time again and Sr Annette had a new project.   She wrote to the 6th class telling them about a village way up on the hills. There was no school there and the children had to walk an hour to Maji Matitu school. That would be somewhat manageable if there was no rainy season. Every year the rains come around the months of March and April. The lower land floods and the roads are impassable. Each year people die trying to cross the floods. Even still this year two little children died in the floods between Maji Matitu and Churwi. 
So with help from the Creagh NS confirmation class, a school was built on the hills of Churwi. It began with 59 pupils. It now has well over 1000 enrolled. 
​
On Friday we walked up for a visit and to drop off some gifts from Ireland.

The acting head teacher and the sports teacher were delighted to receive our gifts. The two footballs came all the way from Noel Mannions sports shop in Ballinasloe. They were intrigued by the LEGO from Galway Education Centre. The skipping ropes and pens (also from Galway Education Centre) will be put to good use by the pupils and teachers. 

We don't realise how lucky we are in Ireland with our interactive whiteboards, laptop trolleys and tablets galore. This is one of the older classes studying the subject ICT/Computers.

How quickly the school year has flown, and in a matter of days I travel back to Tanzania. This will be my third summer and I plan on spending two weeks with the Holy Union Sisters of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. On the way home my flight stops in Addis Ababa so I decided to stop off there for 4 nights also. For now, it's all about Tanzania and preparing to go....
The Galway Education Centre and former director Bernard Kirk have very kindly donated an immense amount for this trip. The LEGO kits from the LEGO League make up a good part of my luggage. I brought some LEGO last year and it was a huge success. 

Earlier in the year Bernard gave me this huge suitcase packed full of goodies. My only problem was how to bring it all to Tanzania and what to do with the LEGO once I get out there. 

So I started to sort the pieces by colour and function. There's a lot of LEGO and an awful lot of pieces so I decided to enlist some help and brought the whole lot into my class in school. They did trojan work breaking up all the projects from LEGO League and sorting the pieces into the correct boxes. 
But yet the question still remained: What would I do with the LEGO in Tanzania? It would have to be ready to go, easy to complete and educational. 
I found LEGO Challenge Cards online and with the help of my pupils, printed, cut and laminated the sets.  We had a few practice runs to see if they worked well!

Next big question was how to transport the LEGO to Tanzania ready to go. I felt it would be too complicated having all the pieces separated into different boxes. We decided we would make a pack for each challenge card. Pupils took cards, bags and selected the blocks and pieces they felt were needed for each challenge. 
Meanwhile I had pupils in charge of the case, making sure the bags were properly closed and even using the school hoover to attempt some vacuum packing!

I was delighted to get that all packed and organised but I hadn't reckoned on a second suitcase from Galway Education Centre.

More LEGO, USB flash drives, Pens (100s), t-shirts, pencil cases and skipping ropes. Another bit of organising, this time without my helpful pupils!
Added into the mix are footballs donated by Noel Mannion Sports in Ballinasloe, Internet Safety manuals from Webwise and some other donations from family and friends. 

All that remains is to fit in some clothes for myself and maybe some suncream. Though Sr. Annette reminded me it's winter in Tanzania.......I think she might be too acclimatised to life beside the equator!

This year is confirmation year in our school and it also falls in with Sr. Annettes bi-annual visit home. As part of our confirmation preparation, the children decide to support a charity with a portion of their gift money. A set amount is agreed on, usually decided by a very democratic vote!  The pupils haven't decided on the amount yet but they were quite definite before Sr Annettes visit that they want to support one of her projects in Tanzania.
She told them about a school in a village called Churwi. The school was begun with funds from another schools confirmation gifts. When the school was up and running, it was handed over to the government. That school now has 1000 pupils with less facilities and space than our 3 teacher school in Eyrecourt!
Below are some pictures I took one Sunday in Churwi when I accompanied Sr Annette to a village meeting. The committee were trying to organise and build a medical centre/clinic for their village.  While looking at the pictures, imagine what school must be like as a pupil sharing a classroom with 200 other kids. 

One of the gifts sent out by Galway Education Centre this summer was a huge box of LEGO. Sr. Annette decided to start a Saturday building club in the COBET project. While preparing the LEGO for the first session, dividing it into boxes etc, I discovered that LEGO had never been seen before in Mbagala. The Tanzanian nuns, the teachers (primary and secondary) all expressed amazement at the colourful interlocking blocks. 
I got a bit worried myself and set about making examples for the pupils to see. As the COBET children speak Swahili and have very little English, I wouldn't be able to explain very well what they could make with the LEGO.

The first LEGO Saturday dawned and at 9am 14 kids and a teacher waited for me. The pupils were all in uniform and had been chosen by the principal as inventive children who could be good construction.
I showed them the samples I had made and then showed them the LEGO pieces. Through their teacher translating into Swahili I asked them to make a vehicle and off they went to work.

I have never worked with a quieter, more engrossed set of students. There wasn't a sound for two solid hours. I thought the two hours set aside for the workshop was too long and that I would have to break it up with activities. Not a hope!
These kids were intent on making their vehicles and trying every tiny piece of LEGO. It was amazing to see what they came up with.

After two hours of LEGO making, only interrupted by my insistence of photographs, we all gathered around a table to play "Sinking Ship", a board game also donated by the Galway Education Centre. Needless to say, the children had not much experience playing board games and they seemed to really enjoy this type of concentration game.
Finally I had to choose the best vehicle and pictured below is the winner with her prize of the Sinking Ship board game. 

The Connacht Tribune of Thursday 31st of August featured a lovely piece about Sr. Annette and her work in Tanzania. I had forwarded the July article from the Citizen newspaper to the editor Dave O'Connell thinking he might be interested in a good news story about a nun from Kilconnell.
Dave seemed to really like the story and talked very enthusiastically about it on the Keith Finnegan show on Galway Bay FM that morning! Click on this link and skip up to 1:11:40 to hear him talking about the article.
Here is the Youtube video he mentions:

You can read the article in full by following this link. 

The online edition doesn't have all the photos so above are pdf's of the actual paper kindly sent to me by Dave so I could email them to Sr Annette. 

If you are viewing this blog post on a phone you will probably have to download the pdf link at the top. If you are viewing this on a laptop or computer, you shouldn't need to do any downloading!

Just over one year ago, there was no Coderdojo in Tanzania and now there are two!

Coderdojo itself is an amazing story. The first Coderdojo club was hosted in Cork, Ireland by James Whelton. He had famously hacked into the iPod Nano and his schoolmates asked him to teach them about coding. This concept of peer tutoring has developed (with the help of co-founder Bill Lao) into the Coderdojo Foundation with over 1,100 clubs in 63 countries.

Last year I had a mission to set up the first Coderdojo of Tanzania. Thanks the the great teachers and principal of Debrabant, that plan came to fruition. Read about it here
This year I returned with a gift of 5 Raspberry Pi's from the Coderdojo Foundation. The teachers were amazed and delighted with the gift and have great plans for their use. The possibilities are endless, especially with all the support materials available on the Coderdojo website. 
Debrabant Secondary school is known as a very innovative school in Dar es Salaam. With 80 computers for use by the students, it is giving the students a great advantage preparing for their state exams. The school already participates in Young Scientist Tanzania and these Raspberry Pi computers might be incorporated in a project in the future!

This year my plan was to open a second Coderdojo in the COBET Street Children School. I spent most of my time with the COBET school last year and their teacher of that time Rodney. Read about it here
Since then Rodney has taken a job in the bank but his wife Irene has taken over as the full-time computer teacher. Rodney still maintains a huge interest and participated in the Train the Trainer sessions with Africa Code Week in June. He also takes some pupils in his spare time to do some further work on coding with them-basically hosting an unofficial Coderdojo! Some of the COBET pupils also took part in the Africa Code week training sessions in June. 
He took a morning off work to catch up with me and was delighted with my plan of registering COBET as the second Coderdojo in Tanzania. We registered it in it's Swahili name MEMKWA and Rodney is the proud champion. 

​Publicity and articles following the opening of last years Coderdojo in Debrabant:
 

• Coderdojo Foundation website: https://coderdojo.com/news/2016/09/12/tanzanias-first-dojo/
• Journal.ie Irish News Website:  http://www.thejournal.ie/coderdojo-fifth-birthday-2980639-Sep2016/  
  
• My account of summer 2016:   www.folens.ie/content/eilis-treacy
• Irish Primary Teachers Magazine p.50/51:  http://www.into.ie/ROI/Publications/InTouch/2017/April2017/InTouch_April2017.pdf​​

The Matumaini Centre opened in 2009 and is the project of Sr Adriana. It is a colourful, peaceful and happy place for many disabled children and their mothers. Run totally on the generosity of donors, it provides physiotherapy, education and rehabilitation services for disabled children and their families.
The centres' main objectives are:
* Improve health and mobility through diet, exercise and hygiene. 
* Enable access to medical help. 
* Empower women who care for disabled children.                        
* Strengthen the self-esteem of children and carers. 
* Show them how to support themselves.
                                                                                                        ​Holy Union Sisters, Tanzania

Before this centre was built, disabled children had no support. There is a severe lack of services in Tanzania and especially in the very populated area of Mbagala. Over 400 families have accessed the services of Matumaini and 100 attend daily or twice weekly for exercises, training and advice.  For these mothers it is also a great social outlet and an break from long days in the home caring for their families.  Mothers chat and do exercises with their children while they wait for their child's turn for massages and exercise.  
Specially adapted equipment and toys are provided and as soon as they arrive the mothers get to work on their children.  Physiotherapists and other medical professionals visit from time to time to examine the children and to give training to the staff. 
Most walk to the centre but there is also a bus which picks up mothers and children. This bus is fully funded by a donor also. 

Maikol's workshop makes supportive furniture, toys and prosthetic devices. Many of the children wear these boots to help them walk and strengthen their legs. The centre produces aids for affordable fees which would otherwise be totally unattainable for these children.  

Mothers of disabled children have very limited employment opportunities. In Matumaini mothers can avail of a sewing course while they attend physiotherapy sessions with their child. On completion of the course, they take the sewing machine home with them and can work from their home.

The schoolroom provides access to education for these children, it also keeps children occupied while their mothers are sewing. One little character really enjoyed trying on my sunglasses!

On Tuesday 2nd of August, the first Tanzanian Coderdojo ​opened its doors. Coderdojo is a free programming club for children and teenagers. It began in Ireland in 2011 and now there are over 1,100 clubs in 63 (now 64!) countries around the world.
Debrabant Secondary School is very fortunate to have two computer labs, a cinema room and very enthusiastic computer teachers. Along with two other volunteers we decided it was time to use all this technology and get the pupils coding. 

20 pupils signed up to join the Tuesday club and such was the interest, it was decided to run a second club on Thursdays for another 20 pupils. We began the session in the cinema room showing a finished game on Scratch. Needless to say, this sparked the teenagers interest! We then went through Lesson 1 from ICS skills, set a challenge and then it was time to code!

The verdict? A resounding success. All pupils involved were so interested and engaged. In fact, they would not go home! We went back to the cinema room to show the next skill and set the second challenge and the ninjas paired up, collaborated and discussed how to get their sprites moving up and down and over and back. We worked on an aquatic theme that day and there were some very interesting swimming on some screens! Overall the buzz, the laughter and the engagement made it a hugely successful first Coderdojo in Tanzania. 
The pupils of Debrabant are so lucky to have 3 wonderful computer teachers: Paulina, Equillax (Dojo Champion) and Reginald. We were also lucky to secure two volunteers: Nelson and Rodney. Rodney is the computer teacher in COBET and I have a feeling he could very well be the champion of the 2nd Coderdojo of Tanzania very soon. 

Just over 8 years ago a certain Mr  Johnston arrived in Tanzania with a pile of money for a village that had no school. That village was Saku and that money was from the pupils of Creagh and Attyrory schools. The pupils had decided they wanted to pledge some of their confirmation money to sponsor a project in Tanzania. The village of Saku had at that time, no school. It was in a remote area and during rainy season especially, it was too dangerous for the children to walk to the closest school.
I visited that school yesterday and saw that first building which the confirmation children sponsored. In time, the government took over the school and it has expanded to over 3000 pupils! The Holy Union Sisters continue to be involved sponsoring two of the Kindergarten teachers. Without their continued support there would only be one Kindergarten teacher for the three classes of Kindergarten.
Each class has over 300 students and most classrooms operate a two shift day e.g. 150 children for the morning school and the other 150 children for the afternoon school.
Two new classrooms are being built and until then the kindergarten have no classroom. They are taught outside which is quite inconvenient during rainy season!
One of the older classes was taking part in a mock exam and since there is not adequate space in the classroom for testing, they sat outside on the ground spaced out from each other.
I have taken a lovely video and many photos to show Mr Johnston  and will upload when I get home or get stronger internet. It's hard to believe that this campus was once an empty piece of land. Food stalls and little shops line the entrance. The staff have no staff room and send out to the food stalls for their lunch between morning and afternoon schools. The children also buy their lunch from the stalls. With over 3000 pupils, this is school not only providing an education to the children but is the main source of income for the local people.