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. 

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​​

Tanzania mainland is not very developed for tourism and planning a safari can be difficult but extremely rewarding. I found it to be a very unique experience and the travel to and from Mikumi was an immersion into the real Tanzania. 
If you do plan on organising your own safari I recommend picking up a sim card at the airport. There are kiosks for each phone company. I used Halotel and found their 3G to be excellent and very fast. Whatsapp is the preferred mode of communication with most taxis, accommodation and tour companies.  Emails are often left unanswered as most companies rely on their phones for internet.
There are many safari packages that will pick you up from your flight or hotel in Dar es Salaam and deliver you back afterwards, these work out to be quite expensive. 
I was lucky to find a new safari camp: Asante Afrika Camp. They have a link on booking.com also but deal with them directly for better value. You can bring your own tent, use their tents or avail of the lovely cabins. After an unanswered email I contacted them on Whatsapp: +255789838883 and arranged two nights accommodation in the private cabin, all meals and a full day safari. For two people this came to under $300 each. Amazing value compared to other companies I had researched. 
As we were miles from Mikumi town in the heart of the bush, there was no alternative restaurant. There was no need to worry, the food was excellent. Plenty of everything, very tasty and we were also asked before arrival if we were vegetarian or had any food preferences. After dinner each night we sat at the campfire and chatted to the night watchmen, some of whom are local Masai. Then when you wanted to go to bed to your cabin or tent a watchman would walk with you incase of any wandering animals. (A buffalo wandered into the camp at 5am the first night and they also had a lion quite recently!)
The safari began at 7am and we didn't return until after 4pm. We were lucky to have the vehicle to ourselves as the camp was quiet on that day. We had a full packed lunch with us from the camp. The only hold up is in the entrance to the park, very similar to the Tanzanian visa on entry to Dar es Salaam - slow, painfully slow. Fortunately Mikumi is not a very busy park and the hold up should not be more than 30 minutes. George our guide and driver was excellent. Very knowledgeable and ensured we had an enjoyable day. 
I was really pleased with the whole experience at Asante Afrika Camp. I had been a bit apprehensive, wondering if it was too good to be true, especially as all my communication with them was on Whatsapp but it exceeded my expectations. The camp itself is so comfortable, great facilities, hot water, good toilets, all the creature comforts (wifi) available. Ernest the manager/host was very diligent and even stayed with us at the bus station in Mikumi for an hour until we got our bus to Dar es Salaam. 

​Which brings me to the final/only issue with Mikumi-the bus!
The alternative to taking the public bus is to hire your own driver which seems to be $300 return to Dar Es Salaam. If you have 4 people to share the costs, I would definitely recommend it.
There are many buses passing Mikumi from Dar es Salaam. Mikumi is very conveniently situated on the Morogoro road which links Dar es Salaam port to Zambia and other west African countries.
From Dar es Salaam you take any bus to Iringa. There are luxury and semi luxury buses. The luxury bus has air con and toilet. With the bus you cannot have a time limit, the journey will take the length it needs to take! We traveled with Sutco buses at 8am from Dar es Salaam and arrived at approximately 2pm. The distance was 195km. We had one stop of 15 minutes. The roads are terrible, the driving is even worse! We were collected from the bus by a bajaji (same as an Asian tuk tuk) sent by Asante Afrika camp.
The return journey turned into a bit of an adventure. Ernest was arranging a luxury bus for our return to Dar es Salaam but when the bus arrived in Mikumi it had only one seat. He waited with us at the bus station for over an hour until we got a local bus to Morogoro, then the bus conductor brought us to a semi-luxury bus direct to Dar es Salaam. That journey of two buses (and 8 hours in total) cost us $7 each. The journey to Mikumi on the luxury bus from Dar es Salaam cost us $10 each.
Eventhough we were the only Mzungu's in the bus station, on the local bus and in the Dar es Salaam bus station Ubungo, we found everyone to be very kind and helpful to us.
Ubungo bus station in Dar es Salaam is the main bus station and is a bit of a shock. A lot of people work freelance at the station selling tickets and making commission on the sales. Ask your taxi driver to drive you fully into the ticket office area and ask your taxi driver to help you buy the tickets. We were lucky to have a great driver from the airport who gave us his card and told us to Whatsapp him for any further journeys. He looked after us at the bus station and made sure we got the correct ticket for the bus. If you do get overwhelmed with a tout, you won't have to pay more than a few hundred Tzs (50c). Ubungo isn't too daunting when you are ready for it.
We found that while we were pestered a bit, once you told them you already had a ticket or didn't need their service, you were left alone. Even the taxi driver who sprinted at least 100m across Ubungo bus station when he saw the two Mzungus on the bus from Morogoro!  

10 years ago I was a 6th class teacher working alongside Mr Johnston in Creagh NS. 10 years on I'm returning for another summer in Tanzania and it all goes back to those years teaching 6th class with Mr Johnston!
A bit of background first. Mr Johnston started the Confirmation project many years ago with his sister in law Sr. Annette. Each year before the 6th class made their Confirmation, Sr. Annette would write and tell them of a project that needed funding. Sometimes it was a well for a village, the first ever project was tools for an apprentice and often the project was something to do with a school.
In 2007 Sr. Annette wrote and told the pupils about a remote village called Saku.  The children had to walk an hour to get to the closest school. In rainy season this was impossible and very dangerous due to flooding and wild animals. She asked the pupils for their help to build the school. She had started schools before with the assistance of the Creagh and Attyrory pupils. Then when these schools are up and running, the government take them over and fund them from then on.  
The pupils rose to the challenge and pledged some of their Confirmation gift money. They also took part in a sponsored walk. Mr Johnston decided it was time to visit all the projects he had been involved with down through the years and flew to Tanzania that Easter with his two sons in tow. 
A sum of €7000 was sent in total that year. 
I prepared a short video with Mr. Johnstons footage of 2007 and my visit to Saku school last summer. The number on the roll now is over 3000 pupils. Yes three thousand! 
Enjoy!

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.