Vor ca. einem Monat besuchten uns an der Jordan University zwei Journalisten der spanischen Zeitschrift Mundo Negro (Comboni Missionare).
Sie zeigten sich sehr interessiert an meiner Tätigkeit hier an der Jordan University. Nachdem sie wieder abgereist waren, erhielt ich von ihnen eine Mail mit der mit Fragen.
Hier das vollständige Interview in Englisch:
Have you been doing other voluntary works or something similar before going to Tanzania?
1. The only voluntary work I have done before was being an active member of the Volunteer Fire Brigade in my home village, which is close to Munich.
Some other works I did were working as a ski instructor in my winter-school-holidays in Austria for three weeks each year for a period of two years. I enjoy doing something I love such as skiing and my desire to be able to share my knowledge with others. Furthermore, I really enjoy working with children and to be a mentor to them.
During my last two summer holidays, I spent a lot of time at a Sailing School at Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria. I pursued two sailing and motorboat licences and had been working at the same time as a helping hand at the school. It was a very basic work, which consist of washing dishes, setting up the table, and watching the children. In the future I would like to work there, as a sailing instructor during my university holidays. Again, my objective is to be able to do something I love and at the same time-share my knowledge and expertise with others.
What other countries have you been to so far?
The only longer stay to another country (longer than a “holiday/vacation” stay) has been my stay abroad in Auckland, New Zealand attending Kristin School for about seven months. At that time, I was 15 turning 16 at the end.
The New Zealand experience was so far, the best time of my life. Therefore, I was not afraid of a one-year stay in Tanzania, as some people might be, because I knew I had already managed seven months by myself when I was “only” 15.
How does your specific work at Jordan University look like?
When I came first to Jordan University College, very few people had known that a volunteer was coming. The only thing I personally knew was that I would be working in the ICT (IT) department. The first two weeks was very hard for me to find the work that I could do. I did not know the structures of the university and any of the university staff or even the lay out campus. Furthermore I did not have the “real” IT knowledge such as how to program software, websites etc. Therefore, I felt a bit unconfident. However, I soon discovered that I do not need that kind of knowledge or expertise to be able to work or help the staff of Jordan University. Right at the beginning, I started a big and labour intensive project to make a new website for Jordan University. Because I did not have too much knowledge about HTML & PHP (programming languages), as I guessed neither had most people who would later update the content of the website. Therefore, I decided to use “Joomla”, a content management system and software to build a website “easily”.
The new website gives Jordan University a better appearance on the World Wide Web and moreover allows students to subscribe online to any academic program of Jordan University. Currently Jordan’s website is only available under: http://41.59.7.251/juc/ - hopefully soon it will be hosted under the real domain www.morogoro.sds.org)
Also I started to give Basic & Advanced Computer courses for the students. I realised that most of the first semester students have nearly no knowledge about how to use a computer. The students are expected to write a research paper with a computer. I conduct six classes per week each 1-½ hours long. I have an average of eight students per class however; I could take up to thirty students in each class. My other works includes helping staff members, teachers and students if they have any problems with their computer. A big job is also the maintenance and improvement of the IT-infrastructure at the campus.
Your Opinion on the superior education system in Tanzania? What are the most handicaps and challenges?
That question is very hard to answer. What I need to state first is that the opinion I have at the moment is only based on everything I have seen and heard in the four months I have been here in Tanzania. So therefore, I might be wrong in some or many points.
I have the impression that the pupils here are not thought to think for themselves before they attend university. At schools the teacher stands in front of the class and tells the students the “truth they have to swallow”. There is no space for something such as group discussions or presentations, which teaches students to gain knowledge by themselves and be able to share it.
Furthermore, most of the teaching institutions I got to know or have heard of were being managed by private western foundations or churches and not by the Tanzanian government. I really do believe that the government is responsible for the education of its own people. Furthermore, the biggest problem is the lack of properly trained and educated teachers at the schools.
Another challenge is the violence in schools. The hitting of students might be due to the large class sizes, having 50 Students per class is the normal size in the city while it can be up to 100 students per class in the countryside up to 100. Mainly this is due to the fact, that “everybody does it” or due to the lack of knowledge of alternatives.
What is the most satisfaction doing this work?
I think the biggest satisfaction I get here is when my work is recognized and appreciated by the students, staff members and people I know.
Furthermore, I feel really satisfied, when a student finally understands how for example to create and name a new folder on the Desktop, after I explained it to him for a few times.
What is your future plans after getting back to Germany?
That is a very good question. What I am really sure of is that I want to go to University to do a Master’s Degree at least, get a job which satisfies me and which I do enjoy. And of course I want to have a happy family later on. J
At the moment the details are still missing. I am not sure what I am going to study. Economics, Engineering or maybe something completely different. I could even imagine moving to New Zealand after I have worked for a few years in Germany.
I t remains to be seen.
What is your motivation to do this volunteer work?
When I came close to finishing school I was sure, that I didn’t want to go to university straight away. I wanted to gain EXPERIENCE. Experience a different country (not only for a holiday), experience a different culture, be more open minded and GROW UP.
Also I felt really lucky to have had such a great environment and education to grow up with so I wanted to share at last just a bit of it with people who probably did not have the same luck.
Is there an evaluation you can do after this experience?
Well NO. I am still busy experiencing. ;-)
But I am really happy to be here.
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