Note, many of my dozen
or so regular readers know that after the last post, which I find now to
embarrassingly gushy, my site was moved from Dindimo Secondary School in Gonga,
Pare Hills, Kilimanjaro Region, to SEGA Secondary School, Mikunde,
Morogoro. The reason given was Safe and
Secure housing issues. (SEE, Be Safe! In posts, below.) I was bitterly disappointed and also quite
upset about the way it was done. Actually
it WAS done really poorly. It took me
awhile to separate my anger at being treated so shabbily by the Peace Corps over
the transfer, and my disappointment at not going to the Pare’s. In the meantime, I had a great time at the
4-day town party in Dar that is swearing in, and I am proud to say that I
survived Training, held up my right hand and swore, and am now a Peace Corps
Volunteer. I miss my PCT buddies like
anything.
SEGA stands for Secondary Education for Girls Advancement. It is a girls boarding school which opened its doors in 2009, and now has 150 students in 4 grades. In December, 2013 we will graduate the first class of Fourth Formers. The mission of the school is to serve as an educational institution for girls in poverty who have failed to successfully complete Primary School, but who have the ability and potential to succeed in Secondary School. In reality, this school receives substantial assistance from donors in the USA, and is able to give the selected students a first class private school education, complete with a preliminary year of remedial English and primary subjects, along with enrichment in the form of art, swimming lessons and computer training.
SEGA School turned out
to be a brand new campus about 6 miles from Morogoro Town, and reachable by
dala dala. So, I went from looking at my
Peace Corps career as an isolated village bibi to a townie, and I also have a
very nice 1-bedroom apartment on campus, so no hardship duty for me. SEGA is quite lovely, with nicely appointed
classrooms and dorms, and the staff have been welcoming and professional. Last week, another volunteer moved in next
door to me, and she is a delightful new friend.
Two more volunteers are expected this fall and then there will be 5 of
us on campus.
Still, I have been worrying my thoughts about what this means for my Peace Corps career like a loose tooth.
Sustainability: The
Peace Corps spends a lot of time with PCV’s teaching them how to make
sustainable change in the cultures where they are stationed. It’s not enough, says Peace Corps mission and
tradition, to come into a community and institute
change. Only by both truly becoming a part of the community and being role models can PCV’s, if they’re
successfully doing their job, assist the people they serve to change in ways
that will be sustainable. How well does
this work? I don’t know. I know that I’ve only heard of it from other
PCV’s in the negative, that is, I’ve heard Peace Corps volunteers say ‘I won’t do it , or
I won’t do it that way, because it’s not sustainable’. I have not seen, or at least I don’t think I’ve
seen, ways in which sustainable change is accomplished. Maybe if it’s truly sustainable, you don’t
see it; it’s just there, in the village where most use mosquito nets or the
family that sends its first child to University.
Sustainability is also, I think, some sort of meta-concept, incorporating the idea
that aid to Africa is worse than useless if it does not result in sustainable
change. The ‘give a man a fish’ concept,
only in Africa it’s not that simple. If
you give an African a fish, he will eat for a day. If you teach the African to fish, pretty soon
there will be no fish left in Lake Victoria and he will starve anyway. But that’s
for another post.
Does SEGA fit this model?
Well, on the one hand, it is heavily supported by American donations and
assistance. At SEGA, my job is
Volunteer, NOT Peace Corps volunteer. A
SEGA volunteer is an American and UK woman or group of women that comes here for
a couple of months to a couple of years and volunteers to help out with enrichment
and tutoring. So I am not, as I was
trained to be, a Secondary School teacher, with responsibility for a Form or
part of a Form. I am a wealthy American
who is helping young women out of poverty.
SEGA is the product of a Philadelphia NGO, and has an American director
and an Australian woman who as a VSO volunteer is director of volunteers and curriculum. The campus was built with a USAID grant. The girls are on 100% scholarship.
On the other hand, SEGA is a registered Tanzanian secondary
school, which means that the teachers are under the Ministry of Health and
Education. Students take Form II and O
level exams, with girls who pass receiving the diplomas that they need to go on
to A levels, college, and University. The aim of the school is certainly to
continue to stay in business, and to expand. There is
a long-term plan to create businesses on campus, at which the girls will work,
to provide income for the school and work experience for the girls who may not
go on to higher education. In that
sense, it’s ‘permanent’ and no doubt will make a long-term difference in the lives
of the girls who are smart enough and lucky enough to attend.
Did I want to be in a village? Take my place as a teacher
and bibi, experiencing it all? Yes. Is
this a village? No. It is, however, a community, and to my first
impression a dedicated and worthy one, and there is work to be done. But in a way I feel disappointed and perhaps
a little underserved by the Peace Corps TZ staff. I could have come here, as others do and will, to
volunteer without having to learn to use a charcoal stove, wash my clothes by
hand, or even to speak Kiswahili. (Although I wouldn’t have missed PCT for the
world, it was truly a wonderful summer.)
I am proud to be a Peace Corps Volunteer, I was trained for this, and I
can’t help wanting to be more integrated in the Tanzanian culture. I don’t want to be cut off from the experience
of Tanzania by American money. But if I
can serve these girls, isn’t that what I came over here to do?
Of course I am worried that I’m just obsessing over this
village/SEGA thing as a way of avoiding commitment. As I’ve said, there is work to be done, and
these girls have been given a lifeline, not just a helping hand. Perhaps sustainability shouldn’t be my
guiding principle. I’m reminded of the
story of the person who walked along a beach covered with thousands of starfish
that had been cast up on the sand by a storm.
As she walked, she bent down and picked up creature after creature, throwing
them back into the sea, and safety. Her
friend wondered and asked her, “Why are you doing this? There are so many starfish, you’ll never be
able to throw them all back.” To which
she replied, “No, but for the ones that I do, it will make all the difference
in the world.”
I’ve always been impatient, and no good at
follow-through. I need to stay with this
until I can see how I can grow and learn from it. They told us it would not be easy, and it isn’t,
just not in the way I thought it wouldn’t be easy. That isn’t easy.
