A lot happened in 2019, 2020 and 2021

 

I visited Neema and Godbless for eight days in the end of February 2020 and arrived in Norway just before Covid 19 started its full worldwide attack. The stay was very interesting. We were seven Norwegians all together. One of them was my friend professor Oddbjørn Bukve. He gave a lecture about the development of the history of Norwegian agriculture from late 1800 up to today. The audience was people connected to “Godbless diary and agriculture cooperation”. People found the lecture very relevant to the situation in Tanzania and the challenges local cooperation meet.

               The audience sitting in the storeroom of the cooperation listening to the lecture

A person in the audience had, together with his wife, donated a 20 hectar farm over to Godbless and Neema as a gift in gratitude for their great community effort. This had happened some months before we arrived. We visited the farm. More about this in the end of this blog.

Today, February 18^th 2021, Bethel School and Home again is in a very good shape. I use the word again because of the closing of all the schools in Tanzania from the middle of March to late June. This hit especially the private schools hard since they are dependent of school fees from the parents. At Bethel School and Home the teachers and the other workers received some money during these difficult months. Gradually from July, most of  the parents were able to pay at least part of the school fee.

Now, the school has about has about 600 pupils of which about 200 live in the boarding. Last autumn the Form VII pupils had very good results at the national examination, and so had Form IV pupils.

 

Plans for the 20 hectar farm

  

                      A small part of the farm

You find the farm not far from Bethel School and Home, 15-20 minutes driving. The area is green and lush and the impression is that trees and plants thrive here. The farm has some cows and produce around 35 l milk per day. There are also some production of banana, vegetables, maze and some more. The plan is to increase a lot. To day 16 men work here and this may be expanded.

The production will be organized in five departments. The 16 men have chosen to which department they shall belong.  The departments are:

Cows. Production of milk, more than 100 l per day at the end of the year. Production of calf/meat. Production of manure fertilizer to give trees and plants in the farm a happy life.

Maze, beans and sunflower (10 l oil from 80 kg sunflower)

Chicken and pigry Eggs and chicken flesh (No chicken and pigs today)

Banana, sweet potatoes and cassawa

Vegetables and fruit

                        Some of the vegetables

An important goal is to produce enough and healthy food for the children in school and boarding. This means about 50 l milk per day. Now they have an egg every second week. In the future they shall have every second day. And they will also have more vegetables and fruit.

Of course the farm must also earn money so that it is possible to pay the workers and contribute running school and boarding. Already people from neighbour villages come and by vegetables, fruit and milk

So I hope the pandemic situation will make it possible to visit them again, perhaps next year.

About this blog

This blog was established July 5^th 2012, so we can celebrate seven years anniversary Friday this week. So far it has been 14 356 visitors (in fact visits because some people may have had more than one visit).

In the beginning all the visitors came from Norway, but gradually people also from other parts of the world have looked up smallandbigintanzania. In December 2016 the percentage of Norwegians was 52%, from abroad 48%. Up to today, July 2th 2019, the percentage from Norway has declined to 38% and from other countries 62%.

Up to December 2016 20% of the visitors came from USA and 10% from Russia. There are still many visitors from USA, but other countries have increased a lot. I can’t find the number of countries that are represented, but I guess it’s between 40 and 50, in all parts of the world. Since I’m the blogger I can get access to some information. Norway: 38%, USA: 16%, Russia: 15%, Ukraine: 11%,…Tanzania: 2%,…

Group work about future education and job

Before visiting Bethel School in January 2018 I had prepared three group works. The idea was to make the pupils understand that there are different ways to think when you shall plan your future. We gave them three different ways:

No 1 What is your hope and plan for future education and job? (Examine your heart)

No 2 What are the needs for your country? What educations are most necessary that young people choose? (Examine your head)

No 3 Starting your own company

While I was there, the 73 pupils in class 7 were organized in 12 groups, with six pupils in each group working with no 1. They worked outside, under a three. They were very motivated. Probably they liked to discuss with each other without a teacher participating. From 2017 they had got a new curriculum. There are a lot of changes. One of them is to organize the pupils to work and discuss problems in groups. (I was not aware of this preparing the group works in Norway)

Two years since last visit

In the last part of January I visited Godbless and Neema, that was visit number 14. The first one was in 2006. For a particular reason there was no visit in 2017.

A lot has happened since 2016 – many more children at school and a big building - a guest house. The number of children in the boarding is almost the same as in 2016, that is 190. The number of children in school has increased a lot and is now more than 750. That includes the 174 small children age 3 – 6 that have not yet entered the school. I don’t think there are any primary school this big in Norway.

The picture shows a part of the children an early morning when they are waiting for the bell to ring.

Sterk vekst ved skulen og barneheimen

I 2016 er det ca 500 born på skulen og ca 200 av dei bur i barneheimen. Etter fullføring av ny, stor sovesal for gutar i 2016, har barneheimen framleis ledig kapasitet. Skulen derimot er heilt sprengt. Alle klasserom/klassetrinn er fulle. Dette gjer at ein ikkje kan ta opp fleire elevar. Dessutan manglar skulen matsal for dei små, bibliotek og laboratorium. Dette vert påpeikt av tilsynet.

Elevane presterer i landstoppen til avsluttande eksamen og dei lærer seg gode arbeidsvaner. Rykte om dette spreier seg og stadig fleire foreldre ønskjer å flytte borna til Bethel. Dei vert svært skuffa når dei får avslag. Neema har fortalt om tårar. Ho bruker halve dagen dei første vekene i januar til å snakke med foreldre som har stilt seg opp i kø utanfor kontoret hennar.

Oppstilling på skulen ein tidleg morgon. Song, oppmykingsøvingar og ikkje minst formaningar om regelverk og anna. (An early morning. Singing, exercise and rules about what is alowed and how to behave)

Fest og såpe (Party and soap)

English summary in the end

Fest (party)

Ein av bidragsytarane hadde sendt med meg kontantar slik at vi kunne invitere unge og vaksne til fest. Neema og eg kjøpte mange store poser med drops, kjeks i riklege mengder og saft som skulle blandast med vatn.

I alt var det nærare 200 born og om lag 30 vaksne til stades, så det var mange munnar som skulle få ein smak - “som skulle mettast” ville vere å ta for sterkt i.

Det er svært sjeldan borna et snop, så stemninga var høg, sjølv om det ikkje vart så mykje på kvar: Alle fekk tre drops, tre små kjeks og eit krus med saft.

Emmy smyg seg mellom alle stolane og deler ut drops – alle tek tre drops. Andre vaksne delte ut kjeks og saft. (Emmy is walking around giving the children three pieces of sweets. Other adults handed out three cookies and a cup of juice mixed with water)

Alan – snikkar, kaffedyrkar og bonde

Alan er bror til Neema. Han bur saman med familien - kone, mor og son - på eit gardsbruk ved foten av Kilimanjaro. Barneheimen og skulen ligg på rundt 1400 m o.h., Alan bur ca 200 m høgre opp. (Kilimanjaro ragar 5895 m o.h. Porten der folk startar å gå ligg på snaue 1800 m. Også i denne høgda vert det dyrka bananar).

Alan er først og fremst ein hardarbeidande og dugande snikkar. Saman med resten av familien driv han i tillegg landbruk, der dyrking av bananar, frukt som mango med meir og kaffi er hovudprodukta. Garden har og ein gris og ei ku. Tomta ligg i eit bratt, vestlandsliknande terreng som skrånar jamt heilt til toppen av fjellet.

I denne keramikkskåla brenn Alan kaffibønnene, ½ kg av gongen. Metall duger ikkje, då blir dei lett brende

Skulestart i januar 2016

Tidlegare år har eg komme på besøk i slutten av januar. Denne gongen var opphaldet i perioden 8. – 18. januar. Skulen og barnehagen starta opp måndag 11. og det meste i dette innlegget handlar om inntrykk frå denne dagen.

Dei aller fleste borna gledde seg til å begynne, i barnehagen (nursery school – mellom fire og seks år gamle) eller i skulen (opp til 7. klasse), men det som sit sterkast i minnet er reaksjonane til nokre av dei nye borna i barnehagen, dei som sakna mamma. Alle nye i barnehagen hadde følgje av foreldre for innskriving. Biletet syner foreldre i kø for å komme inn til rektor Neema og hennar hjelparar.

Mi fyrste reknebok - ei heilag stund

English summary in the end.

Born som er frå fire til seks år går i Nursery School. Dei får tidleg innføring i bokstavar og tal og lærer å skrive og rekne. Dei sit for det meste ved eller på pultar i klasserom slik som eldre elevar gjer. Leik er det svært lite av. I februar 2015 hadde eg det privilegium å vere til stades i ein time der alle dei 60 borna i Upper Nursery, dvs dei som fylte seks år same år, fekk den fyrste boka si. Det var ei heilag stund. Samstundes var det lærerikt og tankevekkjande.    

 

Brødbaking med afrikansk ved

English summary at the end

Siste helga under opphaldet i januar/februar var det brødbaking. Det vart ei lærerik og utbyterik oppleving. Vi var tre som bakte – Siah, Linda og meg. Neema bidrog og.

Vi sette oss som mål at alle dei 157 borna og dei vel 20 vaksne skulle få ein solid smakebit. Dvs vi bakte for 180 personar. Det vart 60 brød, eller loff er vel rettare – det vart berre nytta finmalt kveitemjøl, dei får ikkje kjøpt anna. Brøda var ikkje store, men alle fekk ganske rikeleg. Vi møtte meir utfordringar enn det eg gjer heime – eg har bygt ein vedfyrt omn i hagen av same storleik. Det var mange ungar som følgde nøye med i store delar av bakeprosessen.

 

Linda til venstre og Siah til høgre