There is No Hurry in Tanzania (Africa)

Man, this is so right…. This was a message I read on one of the student's T-Shirt! I tell you folks after 2 weeks in Tanzania, now we are in our third week you adapt this habit of not being in a rush at all.

• Meetings, not only can they get postpone, no they most properly will not take place at all.


• Power outage has become a normal part of our daily work… no surprises anymore.


• Internet, hmmm a turtle would win the race 100%.


• Food, this is a story of it’s own… order now; get your food in an hour… don’t complain, if food is served in an hour, then we are very good in time!


• Bills… an hour to get it and then another hour to get your change! People I am not exaggerating at all…. If we plan dinner we take 3 hours for the dinning procedure really I mean it, not joking at all :o)) Most of the time if we plan to dine at the hotel we order one hour in advance like around 17:30 (close to the time we get back to the hotel from UDOM), to be sure we get our food around 19:00, seriously…


• You get used to repeating things over and over again.
  

So we got used to the fact that ‘There is no Hurry in Tanzania!’

The Village of Hope

Wednesday 14.10 (Nyerere day), this was a holiday in Tanzania. It is the day in which the Tanzanian people morn Mwalimu Julius Nyerere whom they see as the father of the nation.

On that day, we planed to visit an orphanage called the Village of Hope.
This orphanage is managed by and Italian fellow, who turned out to be a Priest. We did not know that until we came to the village on Sunday for the Sunday Mass, and there he was our Italian Priest holding the Mass in Swahili in a very Italian way, in the church which is in the village. I tell you folks, that was just hilarious.


Ok, now back to Wednesday and the ‘Village of Hope’:

It was a great experience and a wonderful feeling to be among those kids dancing and singing with them.
You have no idea how easy it is to put a smile up on their faces. Not only by handing out candies or goodies, no, you would really hear them crack up when showing them a picture that has been taken of them. This was what I enjoyed most, taking pictures and then showing it to the kids, they will start searching for them selves in the picture and then try to find their friends, all that while filling the whole area with their load innocent laughter.
They are also very clever and can pick up words from others very fast.
Shawn who normaly holds our speeches, stood up and held a nice speech for the kids and the sisters who showed us around.

Now picture the kids staring at him not understanding not one word of what he was saying.
So action had to be taken to break the ice. As Shawn started to introduce each one of us, Camille and I started to cheer up and clap and say out load ‘Wow Yeah, Hi so and so, happy to see you’ and the kids would just repeat in one go. When we start applauding and yelling loudly 'Hello, Nice to see you, how are...' they would just follow.
Later on while we were going around the village on a tour, when any one of those kids would spot us they would greet us as we taught them :o)) that was very sweet.

Here for you a short history to The ‘Village of Hope’, which was, grounded 2000:

The idea started when our Italian priest ‘sorry for not remembering his name’ realized that a lot of HIV orphan children die after they have lost their parents. Furthermore, the regime would even deny any medical treatment for those children as they were pushed off from the society due to their illness.
So, our Italian Priest thought of starting an orphanage to give these children a home. He knew that the most important thing these kids needed was love. To solve this, with his connection to Italy he managed to convenes those who have already done their duties toward their families back home and have time they would like to make good use of, those could come down to Tanzania and start a new family. The orphanage started with units in which you find a Mom and a Dad and around 7 to 9 children assigned to them.

Later on, he had to make sure to get the right medical treatment for these kids. So after convincing the government to allow him to by the medicine required from Bella Italia on his cost, he got the approval. And a medical center started.

The medical treatment went well and the children’s health condition was improving and their life average was prolonged, something that was not really expected, which made the Priest thing that they will need to start educating these children, so primary and secondary schools have been built for education.
That was not enough for our Priest, as he thought that he could also provide medical treatment to the external HIV children with families and that they could also attend the village schools.

Then he got more enthusiastic and thought, well, why not help HIV women give birth to healthy babies?
So the medical center was expanded and the HIV pregnant women were then kept in the center as soon as she gets into her seventh month to treat with the medical treatment. Then once she gives birth to her child she is not allowed to breastfeed the baby and that way the chance of giving birth to a healthy baby increases.

In year 2005 the government announced free treatment for everyone including HIV patients. That is when our Sweet Italian Priest thought, great, now the pressure on the village Medical Center will decrease… well he was very wrong ;o)) the fact of the matter is, it increased a lot more then he could of imagined, to his surprise.

Today, his main concern is to find a job for the children, which are now 16 – 17 years old. His plan is to build a factory to produce milk products, as they already produce their own milk for the newborn babies… I believe in a very short time this village will become a city of its own… :o))

PS:- Picture of a newborn baby well follow, as well as pictures of the village.

Mambo for now :o)

This is the University of Dodoma

UDOM:
Just a week ago it was kind of empty at UDOM and all we met in the hallways were either Deans of the different facilities of the university or Master students. Just this week starting Monday 19.10.2009 the first Semester in the university begins. Therefore it is packed with students who were registering them selves. Long students line waiting in front of the Bank to pay the university fee. Then they take the recite and line up in front of the registration window to hand in their applications with the bank recite which proves that they have already paid the fee. Though this is not enough for the folks who collect the applications, as they have to call the bank and confirm that the applicant has really paid. Once they get the confirmation the applicant lines up to have a picture taken of him to get his/her ID. All this is done manually so even if there has been planed power outages on Fridays (this has been the case for the last 4 weeks now, will get to that later), the folks at the registration window can still proceed with their work. This is something IBMers are working on, together with the UDOM programmers and Tutorial Assistances, to help creating a system to automat most of the manual work.

So, let me take you on a tour in (UDOM): An enormous project, which I believe, has been bought up to attract the people of Tanzania and make them move from the coast more to the middle. UDOM is a newly established public University located in the vicinity of Dodoma Municipality. It has all advantages to provide access to higher education to qualified students from all corners of Tanzania due to its geographical location being at the center of the country. It was established on the 28th March 2007. It is organized in Campus College mode that shall be self-sufficient in basic infrastructure and in provision of basic services to the student community in the Colleges. Currently it has three campus colleges:
1 The College of Informatics and Virtual Education --> Which we are currently working with.
2 The College of Humanities and Social Sciences
3 The College of Education

It is planned to establish other three colleges namely:
1 College of Health Sciences, 2 College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
3 College of Earth Sciences in a very near future
Pictures of UDOM:
PS: Most of UDOM is still under construction.

The Informatice college which is already in use.


I just loved this sign... :o)


A far view of part of UDOM which is still under construction.


Back to good old days... A class room still not complete...

As mentioned we are working together with the College of Informatics and Virtual Education for the following reasons:
The College of Informatics and Virtual Education is being envisioned to be the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Center of Excellence at the UDOM and at national level.
To fulfill its obligations as the ICT Center of Excellence, it is anticipated that the College shall be self sufficient in human resources and infrastructure including, classrooms, computer laboratories, lecture theatres, state-of-the-art research laboratories, campus backbone network as well and Internet connectivity with adequate bandwidth. The primary goal is to put in place a powerful supercomputer to be used by researchers in different disciplines all over Tanzania. It is also expected that the college will put in place state-of-the-art e-learning platform to deliver distance education in all fields.

This is where IBM comes in the game… IBM is creating plans, recommendations and running skills transferring to enable the college become self sufficient in the areas mentioned previously.

More to this in my next Blog

So what can I tell you about Dodoma

Dodoma,

It has been two weeks now since we arrived Dodoma. Dodoma lays, in central Tanzania, it has been designated to take over as the country’s capital in year 1974. Some ministries were moved to Dodoma , yet many regime related ministries are still located in Dar Es Saalam The population of Dodoma is about 200.000. It was grounded by the German colony in year 1907. For me the main attraction in Dodoma would be the University. There is not much to say about Dodoma, but to mention UDOM (University of Dodoma) A very hug project, which I believe, has been bought up to attract the people of Tanzania and make them move from the coast more to the middle. Dodoma as a city is very young and requires all the support it can get to grow. India and China already have big investments in Dodoma mostly in the construction area. Both countries play big role in making UDOM not only a project on paper but on ground.

Here some pictures of the city:

Internet coffee in Dodoma













The railway station right infront of the New Dodoma Hotel, where we are staying













Transportation between Dodoma and Dar. That was not our bus... we had a private bus :o)













And you thought BOSS only designs fashion...!



















My room at New Dodoma Hotel room# 39... I do remove that net before I sleep...













Coming up... UDOM the Univesrsity of Dodoma.
Salama

Saturday Night Fever in Dar

Although we are now in Dodoma, there are things I would like to share with you as we were still in Dar.
Saturday 10.10.2009, in Dar, we thought we need to get wild before we hit the road heading to Dodoma. So we went to a place were we got good food and heard a cool mix of Swahili and English music.

Pictures to give you some expressions:











Nesrien, Mitali and Sonoko the wild cats :o)












Minh, Camille, Nesrien,Shawn, Mitali and Sonoko the Rafiki Timu Dancers.












The DJ disappeared so Camille took over. She did a great job there :o)

Dancing on the Sand was not only breath taking, but it was also taking our breath away and keeping us out of breath. A very nice experience and the company was great.

That is it for now folks.
Jambo from Dodoma

First days in Dar Es Salaam

Pictures talk more then words sometimes so let the pictures tell you the story:

The reception of Mediterraneo Hotel


This is my room (room 11)


The view from my room :o) look carefully you will manage to see the sea


Nessy and her 2 Massai bodyguards


Ok folks I believe this is enough for now :o)
Need to hand over the TP to it's owner.
Bye for now.

Where on earth are the pictures?!

I guess you are all asking where on earth are the pictures I have promised to load??
Well here is the thing, my connection at the UDOM (University of Dodoma) is working fine, yet the connection it self is very very slow, slower then you can ever imagine. To load one picture only one picture it could take the whole day… So I thought that the loading of the picture could be done at the hotel as it should be faster there.
We only got our credits on Tuesday so happily everyone went to connect to the internet, but then guess what I was the only one that was not able to connect!!!
The whole team tried everything with no success. So the only chance I had was the service of the TTCL company from which we are buy our hours credits. As Wednesday was a holiday in Tanzania of course I had no chance to check with the service, the only possible time was yesterday, And although there were around 3 folks working on finding a solution, with no success!
So the solution was to add the written part in the morning from UDOM. In the afternoon after we are done with the work at UDOM I can then barrow a TP from one of my friends here and upload the pictures. So please folks bare with me… :o))
Pictures coming up...

And the Adventure begins

The Blog published today was created on Saturday 10.10.2009.
Yet I was not able to upload it by then.
****************************
Habari za asubuhi,

it is Saturday 10.10.2009, Dar Es Salaam, exactly 11:35 local time.
So here is the first sign of me and I am alive ;o))
We are all sitting now in the restaurant at Mediterraneo Hotel, facing the Indian Ocean, all eager to update their Blogs. I will come to the team a little later, but now let me take you through my journey from Vienna all the way to Dar.


The start of the adventure:

First thing I faced starting this magical journey:
As we arrive at the airport, we have realized that it is very packed. While trying to figure out what is going on, we heard them announce that the suit case runway in not working, everything as stopped. Time was running and passengers were getting nervous, as we all had planes to catch. After about 20 min a solution was found and things were rolling.

Second thing I faced:
Hearing the check-in lady telling me that I am only allowed to take 20kg...! I then pointed that I was flying EgpytAir and that we have 30kg for each passenger + 10kg extra for members... I tell you folks she was not cool at all, and less cool were the folks at the EgyptAir desk, with whom I needed to negotiate to get my rights...! At the end I was able to check-in only one suitcase, which had all my personal stuff and some presents. As the second suitcase had some goodies for the folks in Tanzania I tried to take as much as I can in my handbag. This act was not cool at all, yet my temper was very calm as I planned that nothing will take the joy of this mission away from me.

Third thing I faced:
I thought this was the end of all surprises and the rest of the trip will go fine with no troubles… that is what I thought…
OK the trip did go fine, and I arrived Dar Es Salaam on Friday 09.10.2009 at exactly 05:30 Dar time, which is 04:30 Vienna time… There awaits for me the next surprise… DID YOU GUESS… After I got my Visa and that went very fast and smooth, I headed to pick up my suitcase which was NOT THERE??!!

At the lost and found desk I saw other folks arriving from London also took the same flight as mine from Cairo and they also did not receive their luggage. So in short all those who had transit Cairo, their luggage have not arrived!
Now I ask you, have I not got the right to lose my temper!!!
Well to your and mine surprise, this did not happen. After filling up the forms and taking the information with me that my luggage will arrive same night on the SWISS Airline… (Please do not ask how come SWISS Air when I was flying EgyptAir?), I went out met my contact person and we headed to the hotel…
PS:- my bag did arrived on the same night.. to my luck :o)
PS:-Habari za asubuhi = Good Morning in Swahili

Now we are at the University of Dodoma as I post this.
Pictures of my first day in Dar will follow.
Love
Nessy

Less then 24 hours to go - Tanzania here I come

OK Folks this is it, this is the final count down... My packing list is through and only little things are missing such as candies for the children down in Tanzania :o).

I will be the second person to arrive in Dar Es Salam. I leave Thursday 08.10.2009 Vienna at 15:30 and will arrive Dar on Friday 09.10.2009 at 05:30.
The first one I should meet from the Rafiki Timu is Andre...

So this is it... Next BLOG from Dodoma...

Kwe heri = Good Bye in Swahili.

What on earth am I going to do in Tanzania?!

I know that I wrote in my previouse post, that my next post will be from Dodoma/Tanzania. But then I thought, you sure have the right to know, what I will be doing in Tanzania dispite having fun ;o)
OK, let's get abit seriouse... Here is a summary for you folks.

The Team I will be part of:
I will be a member in a group of 10 IBMers from 8 different countries.


We have been split to 3 subgroups.

Whom did I end up with and what will we be working on?
Fellow Name: Camille from France, Minh Le from USA and me.
Location: The University of Dodoma


Our Assignement:
The IBM CSC team will work closely with the staff of the Collage of Informatics and Virtual Education of the University of Dodoma to develop the University of Dodoma Management Information System (UDOM-MIS), as well as develop recommendations for UDOM's work to benefit primary and secondary schools around the university.

I will be able to explain this better once I am there and once we get started....
Trust me I am as puzzled as you might seem now :o))

Love Nessy

In exactly 1 Week time I will head to Tanzania

Jumbo everybody,

only 6 days to go then I will be sitting in the plane heading to Tanzania.

I tell you folks, as time passes by I realize that I still have a lot to do... What worries me most is the packing.

So, now you have my private BLOG in which I will share with you my journey to Tanzania from A to Z.

CU in my next BLOG which might be most probably from Dodoma Tanzania.
Love Nessy