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!

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​​

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!

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. 

​Most of my time for the past week has been spent with the new computer room in the COBET (MEMKWA in Swahili) school.
First a little about the COBET project. Continuing Basic Education in Tanzania. This was set up by the government to support children who were unable to access school due to disadvantage and family circumstances. The pupils start at various ages and receive their primary school education in a condensed 3 year programme and are ready to join secondary school. For their first year in mainstream they are in their own class and the next year, they are integrated with the rest of the school.
The pupils stories are varied. Many of the girls are "house girls". They were sent out to work by their family as young as 6 years of age. Some have been lucky to have employers who let them go to school during the day. However they could be working from 4am to 11pm in the house before and after school each day. Other kids are orphaned, many due to AIDs. There are a lot of kids from broken homes or single mothers.
Unfortunately the funding for the COBET projects has been severely reduced but the Holy Union Sisters are intent on continuing the programme.  The "teachers" are not trained and are facilitators who are educating these children as best they can. All teaching is through Swahili and these kids will join the local government school where classes can be well over 100.
Sr Annette decided to try to install a computer room to give these children an opportunity and an advantage over their future classmates in the government school. With the help of the INTO Solidarity Fund, Folens overseas teaching fund, my own confirmation class and other donations, she was able to order 25 computers from Camara.

I have settled, I'm here in Tanzania and despite major wifi withdrawal, I’m OK! I’ll admit, there was a breaking point on Thursday and I paid the nuns IT guy to buy me my own modem, great excitement when he arrived yesterday but unfortunately it was not to be. So it’s old school desktop PC, bye bye whatsapp and constant notifications, I don’t know what to do now in the mornings without all my updates to trawl through!
Enough of my first world problems....Tanzania........

Yes, the suitcase arrived. Luckily Sr. Annette had asked me to have a letter from my school stating that all the contents were a gift to the Holy Union Sisters School. I was stopped at customs after the bag was x-rayed and sent to the red channel. I dutifully produced the letter and blabbered a bit nervously but with a nod I was let through.

​Sr Annette met me at the Dar es Salaam airport. Along with her driver, they had waited patiently for over an hour after my flight arrival time. Let’s just say the visa processing service at immigration is not exactly efficient! Our exit from the airport was then impeded by a car illegally clamped right behind our car. Finally the driver and his mother returned but they didn't seem to have the inclination or the means to get the clamp removed. Finally the space beside our car came vacant and our driver was able to manoeuvre the car out around the clamped, non-moving car!

​An hour later saw us at the Holy Union Sisters Convent, Mbagala. Right next door is the primary school and across the road is the COBET street children project. Little bit of freshening up and we were off again, this time to meet the teachers and see the schools. I was introduced by Sr Annette as a head teacher from Ireland who would inspect the teachers and play sport with the children?! School reopened after its month of summer holidays just this Monday.

​After dinner it was an early night, to catch up on a missed nights sleep.
Wednesday was to be a quiet day for me to rest and get acclimatised to the place. Also Sr Annette was away at another convent. However Sr Mairead took me under her wing and brought me on another tour of the school. This time, school was in session and I was introduced to the children. The school takes children from 3 years and teaches the Montessori Method of preschool. The children all get lunch in the school and instead of going home early; the preschoolers have a nap and go home at the same time as the older pupils. 

Next it was onto the computer room to see the computers funded by the INTO solidarity fund and the room prepared from the funds of my own confirmation class.
Rodney, the new computer tutor was there with a few students but unfortunately the electricity had gone and he could only tell the children about the computers for this class!

The next morning I met with Rodney and we discussed ways of introducing the children to ICT. He took a group for two hours and it was their second lesson on the computers. I took charge of the inside room and my little group started with MS Paint. We thought it might be a nice way to get the children used to using the mouse. Rodney had to translate for me as these children are taught through Swahili and have limited English.
It was hot and stuffy; the kids kept talking to me in Swahili somehow thinking that I'd magically understand them. I supposed they are used to the Sisters like Sr Annette and Sr Mairead speaking their language and as they assume I'm a sister too, of course I should be fluent!
We moved on to PowerPoint when I realised the class was not an hour long but two hours long. They got a great kick out of the transitions on the slides, however they really haven't mastered saving files yet and as soon as you would see a child with a nice presentation they would have exited out of it and not saved it!

​Yesterday I spent the morning with Rodney teaching the same group of children computers. I thought 2 hours were long the previous day, these kids were timetabled for 4 hours! But we got on fine, we continued with PowerPoint. I had taken photographs of them and their school and they prepared presentations about themselves and their school. We invited some of the teachers in to help on the pretence of assisting me because the children would be writing in Swahili. The teachers in this school are not trained and have no experience of computers at all. The children I realized as the day went on, are of various ages. They come from difficult backgrounds and attend COBET to basically rehabiliate them into school life. They will join the mainstream school in a few years but already some of these kids are 14 years and older. Their standard of reading and writing is very basic so they were very proud to show off their powerpoints at the end when we did a class show and tell. Their school day actually finished at 12pm as it was Friday but nearly all the children stayed on for the extra 2 hours. 

In other news, I’m here minding the house while the Sisters are at a seminar for the morning. I’m going to another convent later to pick up a nun who was away. The convent is great, really comfortable and airy. A different nun cooks each night and treats so far include freshly roasted peanuts and banana bread. A man arrived this morning with a bucket of honey and Sr Annette is very proud of the cows they have on their farm. We have mangos, bananas, oranges and pineapples every day.
The electricity goes a few times a day, it went twice yesterday during our computer class but you just wait until it comes back. To have a hot shower, you have to heat water separately and throw it over you in the shower. Everything takes a bit longer but nobody is in too big of a hurry either!
And eventhough every Tanzanian tells me it is cold, and the kids are wearing their school jumpers-it’s roasting!