American Students at Mlimani Primary School

On August 26, as part of the Lutheran Colleges Consortium for Tanzania (LCCT) program, we visited Mlimani Primary School at the University of Dar es Salaam.











The LCCT program has a longstanding association with Mlimani Primary School. Students from LCCT institutions who study at the University of Dar es Salaam get the chance to teach and interact with teachers and students at Mlimani.










The Mlimani program started in the early nineties. After watching the LCCT program for a number of years, Mama Shoonie Hartwig, founder of the program, talked with Heribertha Mbele, who had been a teacher at the Mlimani School, about the idea of LCCT students doing some volunteer work at the school. The teachers at the school welcomed the idea, and that is how the program started.




The American students mostly teach English, under the guidance of the teachers. The program has worked rather well. This year, the school principal told me how much the program has meant for the school children. Learning English from native speakers is a valuable opportunity. In addition, through interacting with the LCCT students, the school children get used to white people.




A teacher took us on a tour of the school, visiting classes and looking at the buildings and the surroundings.













The LCCT students, on their part, appreciate the opportunity to broaden their study-abroad experience through working at the school. This has been a notable addition the LCCT program.

Memories of Matema Beach

From the first time I learned about Matema Beach, while planning an academic trip, I wanted to go there. The few photos and travelers' reports I saw online inspired me, although they suggested that the journey to Matema Beach was not for the faint-hearted.

I finally got there in August this year. To my surprise, the journey was not rough. It did not take us up and down or round steep mountain slopes. The imposing and scenic mountains are in the distance, and sometimes quite close, but the road follows level ground all the way. It is best, however, to hire a vehicle as we did in Mbeya.

Seeing is believing. When you finally arrive at Matema Beach, you realize what a lovely place it is, the kind of place one wishes to visit again and again.

Having been told to make meal arrangements in advance, I did call the Lutheran Center two days before our arrival. They prepared exactly what we ordered, and the cooking was marvellous.









From the Lutheran Center main building to the lake shore, you pass this little gift shop. Here you can buy African fabrics, post-cards, and various souvenirs. You can also get drinks here.










Because our schedule was tight, we only spent some hours at Matema Beach. If we had more time, we could have easily stayed overnight. The Lutheran Center has accommodation facilities such as the one on the left.









Apart from hanging out on the beach, a great way to enjoy a stay at Matema Beach is to go on a canoe ride. On another day, I will write about our canoe trip from Matema Beach to the nearby village of Lyulilo, famous as a pottery market.

My Ngugi Seminar

My Ngugi seminar is already underway, having started on September 9. On that day, I introduced myself, the course, and my teaching philosophy. Today I started with an overview of Africa, the cradle of the human race, language and story telling, concluding with the evolution of modern African writing. At the very end, I talked about Ngugi.

Our first text will be The River Between. Just thinking about this novel brings back memories of my days as a secondary school student in southern Tanzania, when we used to read this and other works by Ngugi, Chinua Achebe, David Rubadiri, Legson Kayira, and other African writers. We also read such writers as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Daniel Defoe. We had, thereby, a rich and varied context for appreciating African literature.

Now, many years later, I look forward to revisiting The River Between and other works by Ngugi.
I am particularly keen on Wizard of the Crow, which I have not read before, and equally keen on exploring the intersection of African literature and politics that Ngugi exemplies so well.

From Coco Beach to Matema Beach

What a month this has been for us three people on the LCCT program. We have visited a number of amazing places in Tanzania, starting with Dar es Salaam. On the left we are seen at Coco Beach, a famous spot in Dar es Salaam.









Coco Beach attracts large numbers of people eager to escape the hustle and bustle of Dar es Salaam, even though this is a part of Dar es Salaam. Here, for a few hours, they can relax, play, and enjoy the refreshing ocean breeze.









After two days in Dar es Salaam, we headed inland, to Iringa. There we stayed several days, visiting the city and its environs.

We also spent two memorable days in the Ruaha National Park, witnessing the great abundance of animal and bird species, some endemic to this Park. Elephants, giraffes, kudu, crocodiles, hippos, gazelles and other animals roam everywhere. You spend the night wondering what animals those are that are howling, screeching, or fighting outside your tent. Lions, which are difficult to see in other parks, abound in Ruaha National Park.






Then we were on our way again. We went to Njombe where we spent a night, in the hotel shown on the left.

On the following day, we were on our way to Mbeya. We stayed two nights.

On August 20th, we headed to Matema Beach. This is a place I had written about, eager to visit.




With its sun drenched beach, sparkling lake water and friendly, laid back locals, Matema Beach feels like paradise. It is, surely, one of Tanzania's hidden treasures.

Matema Beach reminded me of Mbamba Bay, further south on this same lake shore. I have written about Mbamba Bay, both in English and in Swahili.

Today is my 60th Birthday

Today I am turning 60. I had a busy day and never really had a chance to think about it. In the morning, I was in Njombe, getting an update on the progress of Njombe University College. Then, in the early afternoon, I embarked on a journey to Mbeya, arriving only about an hour ago, this evening.

I might find a better time to talk about my birthday but a few thoughts crowd my mind right now. It is a priviledge to live up to sixty and I am grateful. I have to ask, however, what I have done with all those years. Hemingway worked very hard as a writer, receiving the Nobel Prize when he was in his mid fifties. That is a good standard by which to judge my achievements or lack thereof.

I want to think of the age of sixty as a kind of turning point. If I haven't accomplished much so far, I doubt if I will make up for the shortfall in my remaining years. Besides, I ask myself how many years I still have in this world. Could it be five, ten, or fifteen? I doubt if I will live another 60 years.

I am grateful for the good things I have learned and done and hopeful that I will have a few more years to make a positive impact on the world from which I have gained so much.

A Book Signing at the Iringa Lutheran Centre

I came to Iringa, last night, with students on the LCCT program. Little did I know that I would be signing my books at the Iringa Lutheran Centre, where we are staying. Yet that is exactly what happened this evening.

We traveled from Dar es Salaam with a group of people on the Bega kwa Bega program which is based in Minnesota.

Though I did not know these people, they knew me, so to speak. David and Karen, their trip leaders, had told them to read my book, Africans and Americans: Embracing Cultural Differences, for this trip. This evening, after dinner, David and Karen offered me their copies of the book to sign, as shown above.

(Th first photo above courtesy of Bailey Putney)

A Meeting With the Ruvuma Press Club

On August 4, 2011, I met members of the Ruvuma Press Club, thanks to the efforts of Mr. Christian Sikapundwa, a leading member of the Club whom I had never met but had communicated with through his blog and mine. Living in far-away America, I have found Mr. Sikapundwa's blog a valuable source of information about Ruvuma, my home region. I learned about the Ruvuma Press Club from this blog.

Knowing that I would be in Ruvuma, Mr. Sikapundwa called together members of the Ruvuma Press Club so I could meet them. We had a memorable evening get together at the Serengeti Club. We talked about many things, and I learned much about the realities of doing journalism in challenging circumstances that include inadequate resources and the perils of seeking and speaking the truth. Having listened to Dan Rather a few months ago, at St. Olaf College, I could see how universal the basic experiences of reporters and journalists are.

This was a congenial and rewarding get together, which enabled us to know one another and share personal and professional experiences. As I was simply passing through Songea on my way to Dar es Salaam, I did not have time to visit the offices of the Club. We look forward, however, to continued communication. You can read more about our meeting here and here