There are all sorts of little things I am learning that I wish I knew when I first arrived--if you eat bananas cut the tips off; chickens are fed dried fish so watch out for eggs; yogurt is runny, there is some brand of what claimed to be soy milk on the container but had smelled like sour cream and was full of lumps, there was no English on the carton, Arabic, French, but it was called Soy and the store guy told me that's what it was. It was not out-dated either. I was told today by the landlord who puts lemon in his beer and I've seen him with ice also that Castle is decent beer and light Castle is only 4% alcohol and tastes decently. And now, B. at the office told me to never buy the 6 liter containers of water...which I've been doing for 2 months now. For the second time I became  ill Sunday a little bit but more so yesterday. (don't worry, just intestinal) She said it could be the water that I've been drinking, that I should never buy those large containers, she sticks to water under the Kilimanjaro label (owned by coca cola as most sodas seem to be here) and only buys the small bottles, then I'm talking to the landlord and I told him I was home yesterday and will stay home and rest  tomorrow. He says that I should NEVER buy that 6 liter bottle of water, I should only buy the Kili 1.5 liters or smaller.  Well, now I know. He gave me several bottles to tide me over. B said I can boil the larger water and use it but never drink it directly. So I guess getting sick just 2 times in 2 months of drinking the stuff is really pretty good!

And I've been so careful, washing and peeling fruit and veggies (staying away from tomatoes and all salads even the lovely looking ones with good looking tomatoes and red onions sliced small in a vinegary dressing with herbs. Fresh fruit peeled and cooked veggies or peeled and cooked. Well, I'm feeling a little better, watching what I eat since Sunday, Love that melba toast and so glad I found some here.  I think just need some rest for a bit though I've been sitting for 2 months pretty much with my face in my computer.  Oh well, it's good to learn something new and that it's just the water, thank goodness not anything I need. Oh. wait. :-).

photos

fruit seller & kids

Another OSHA photo Don't just look at the guy on the right, notice the one on the left. What is he standing on?

this is the explanation of the crucifix. Apparently Dr. Livingstone (remember, Dr Livingstone I presume?) said his heart will always be in Africa. When he died his body was shipped back to England via Zanzibar; but his heart was removed and buried near Lake Victoria. The crucifix was made out of the tree under which his heart is buried. there's a story.

Dr. Livingstone's crucifix we presume

Zanzibar street/market through car window

This is a Masai young man. People hire them as guards because they have a reputation as great warriors. But every one I've seen is young and very thin. They do carry large blades and sticks though. He is watching at the Sunset Bar at the first hotel we were at

Me and social work faculty at Univ. of Zanzibar

State University of Zanzibar faculty. The tall guy on the right is our social work volunteer who travels and assists me

Last training day. I am so impressed with these people!  Tuesday when we started they had no idea what a syllabus is, had never done one; they had no field manual and no idea of what they could do in the classes with students, some online and some classroom classes.  By today at 4pm, they had a very nice first draft of a practice manual, 9 syllabi, and had begun to look at resources for their classes. wow!!!  That's all I got--wow!  A group of people from a couple of different programs and they can sit down and work intensively, about 8 hours a day for 4 days, some discussion, some disagreements but came to consensus and have great products.  They make me look good! Now I feel that I've accomplished something really concrete. And I can rest a little too.

It amazes me that folks without backgrounds in social work could believe so strongly that it is an important profession that they are working from nothing, committed to getting programs up and running. I'm lucky to be able to watch and be a part of this; it's inspiring. It is not a matter of these people all being new faculty who are young and are new to teaching, these people have been teaching here, the salaries people get are low, lower than the US, social work is not even known in much of the country so it's an uphill challenge.  Inspiring, and we complain when we have to teach in another building, if our "smart" classrooms are not totally working. etc.  Some of these schools do not have updated bathrooms, no air conditioning, no computers in classrooms, no subscriptions to online search engines or journals, and their students cannot afford textbooks. There is not an existing career in "social work", the same time programs are being instituted a social work education group is gaining strength, a national association is struggling to start, and they are trying to get a council under the government that will grow into a legal structure for social work in the country. wow. A good week.

sunset sailboat Indian Ocean

Zanzibar market

Zanzibar bus

OSHA training photo. This is the scaffolding put together--tied with rags & ropes, used for many construction projects in Zanzibar & Dar

truckful of bicycles. The guy stands on the roof of the truck to hold up and off the bikes the electric wires that run through the streets. I imagine if they got caught on the metal bikes..fireworks and all Stone Town Zanzibar electricity would be out

artist working on his tinga tinga painting. The colors are wonderful and they do not first sketch it out on the canvas

slave holding cell for women & children, hold @75 people on this raised stone bed with a narrow walkway in the center. No way to stand, hard to sit without ducking from the roof, a few slit openings are at ground level outside so water can be tossed in to "wash" the waste

slave holding cell for men, for @50 men. chained to the stone platform, narrow walkway/waste way in the center. All of these pictures taken with flash so it is very very dark.

slave memorial outside, next photo is whole view.

memorial, statues are chained together, each represents one of the tribes taken from villages inside of Africa--Congo and other countries

training days

wow! The training is moving along. The school we are working with starts MSW in October, their faculty are here along with members of another school that has not yet started their BSW program so it is all new to them as well, they are learning by working with the first school faculty on developing  their syllabi. A good way to collaborate and build on existing relationships.  They had @11 syllabi to complete (aka start on and learn what one is) yesterday at 9am. By 3:30 today, they have just 1 left, for field. Great work! Tomorrow we finish discussing issues around the syllabi, move to the field for awhile, then go to the big challenge--what assignments, activities, etc can be done for each class.  That is going to be a challenge on several levels--I don't know what content they need as some course descriptions are very general, most of them have taught BSW so that's good, but they are not social workers, in other areas of academia, and I'm sure they would prefer if we gave them lecture notes and activities for all classes.  Thus comes the difference between me being the worker bee doing stuff for folks vs. being a consultant. I have collected over the years a lot of sample syllabi, activities, slide packs, rubrics, etc so hopefully these will help them get started. So the last steps will be to let them peruse content materials I have and links to various websites to help them determine what feels comfortable and may work for them which will involve what fits the course, what fits their ability to teach in social work, and what fits their style of teaching.  I'm finding this very interesting, personally challenging--different meanings with same words. We discussed whether participation and attendance counts at all since many people miss many classes here for many good reasons (sick, no gas $, traffic, work, etc). It became a benchmark discussion, where I was talking about individual grades for individual participation one school discussed their use of what is to me a benchmark i.e. 80% of students in each class are present.  Also so similar to our conversations at home in the US about benchmarks, measures, competencies, and practice behaviors. Two to 3 more days to go.

training challenges

So, I spent most of the weekend putting together a training that I thought was a day or two of my stuff but learned Sunday that it was not just Tues. and maybe Wed. it's Tuesday through Saturday. Oh my. It's for the schools that are starting MSW programs in the fall, I was going to train on what a syllabus is and then on what goes into a field manual (for non-social workers--not a gardening book, but the manual for internships). Two things I've never done. I gotta say, this work is increasing my confidence! I also collected a ton of internet sites, links, and some articles and rubrics for them to use as research for class lessons. We started today, I did syllabus training because they have not used these here before, education is based on the British system. 

It will be a challenge, they worked on developing syllabi today, they need them for 11 classes and we hope to have them all completed in the next day or 2. Then we move to class info and resources. We were pretty sure that the faculty were thinking I was going to write all their lecture notes. ha. I don't use lecture notes myself so I certainly can't do it for classes I don't teach. Besides, it's not my job, it's theirs, they have to own what they are going to do in class. So, after the syllabi are done, we will provide them with resources and they will have to search through them to determine what might fit their individual courses.  A BIG challenge all around.

Language, jargon, conceptualization across cultures and teaching styles and  remember, there has been just 1 school of social work here so they have a few people with experience teaching but there are only 2 people with PhDs in the country (1 whose degree is actually in sw, the other is Ga Young's friend (for those who know her) and his is in something related I was told but not specifically sw. Although talking with him he sure seems to be a social worker! He and I are determining how to use the time this week so we have big expectations for 4 or 5 days. Especially realizing how much is lacking.  For example, one school has distance education online. I explained that the syllabus should include the times, room number, and days of the classes. Someone asked me what they are supposed to put if it's online. I hope they didn't spend a lot of time trying to figure that out.  I'm thinking this is likely the last intense week although a few faculty want me to travel with them. There really are lovely people here.  And lots of concern that people don't know what social work is, think it's the same as volunteering and one doesn't need education. Well, I can empathize, certainly it plays out differently but the attitudes are very similar so maybe one thing I can do is normalize their experiences.

There is something that could help a lot--they would love to have social work professors from the US come here even just for several weeks to co-teach classes. I think this is a great idea, if any of you can think of a $$ source, let me know.  More photos on another page....

Photo post

the plane. hot. stained seats. close

lovely.not. Africa House Hotel

Sunset at the bar, best part of the hotel

traditional fishing boats Dhows

Hairy lamp with brown stains next to the bed. Might have been coconut but I would not get close enough to figure it out

the alley next to the hotel to get to the front. When I knew things were going downhill the more we walked uphill...