The Theory of Change:Life in Tanzania Education December 2012

The Theory of Change and Life Lessons in Tanzania

Heading off with great hope into the wilds of International Development, heart and hat in hand, I had no idea what to expect.  Adapting to the climate, culture, language, peoples etc was at least an area I’d had some experience and some ideas of how to approach.  As far as the workplace goes, that’s another story, and a story which many of you reader having been waiting to hear about.  I decided that I should allow some time for things to “settle down” before I tried to describe and explain them on this blog. 

 

I guess that’s one of the first lessons for me, that things sometimes never really settle down.  The work that I had eagerly applied for, enhancing the Distance Education programs for health care workers, did not appear initially.  I did, however, observe the many gaps and the need for my services.  It appears that in this African country (and may be similar in others), people get the most basic training/certificate they can in their desired field… doctor, nurse and community health officers.  From there, they head out to the field (their own villages and rural areas) to work the best they can.  Over time, any increase in skills and knowledge, certification and accompanying remuneration, will then rely on their personal motivation and accessibility to taking distance education courses.  That leaves people having to grasp and utilize the information independently, and after 3 months of study, to travel to the nearest training centre for a review and exam.  Another challenging factor is that the courses are provided solely in English (all education from high school up) but the fluency level is very low.  Reportedly, many of the students (much more than ½) fail the exams but are passed along anyway.  That’s a bit scary given the subject matter, however it gets worse.  The courses in the areas that I was to focus, HIV, Maternal and infant Care, and TB, had not been updated for over 20 years! 

 

When I first arrived, as is common in many of these volunteer placements, the ‘employer’ is just so happy to have resources that they ask you to do something completely different.  This happened to Sr. Assenga who arrived after me, as a DE expert (newly graduated with a Master Degree), but as she is now teaching at the entry level nursing, it is unlikely she will ever get to work on DE courses (her dream).  I was also asked to teach in the nursing school as they only had one teacher.  I declined for a few reasons.  Firstly, the student’s fluency in English and mine in Swahili were not a fit.  Unfortunately, the principal and other teachers believed I should do it anyway, and it’s up to the students to keep up. Scary thought again in terms of quality education.  Secondly, the resource books were the same 20 year old books, and thirdly and most importantly, I did not want to offer service provision at the entry-level.  I believe that capacity building in the form of training trainers/tutors, mentoring and coaching is what is needed for sustainable effectiveness in helping a country/people improve their situations.  I have heard too many stories from other volunteers that after they left, everything returned to the initial status quo.

I also believe that the services provided should be based on what the ‘people’ are asking for and not what outsiders believe is the best.  History has shown over and over again the downside of forced acculturation and the diluted results through the co-optation of another’s traditions and practises.  I was also very disappointed, to say the least, to discover that the work I was sent here to do, was not welcomed nor seen as a priority.  Neither did the recipients feel a part of the proffered change (mandated by the NGO).  This is of course familiar in my own country and institutions.  I recall being part of many ‘Town Hall’ meetings and ‘Forums’ over my years in nursing, Mental Health, Hospital and Government work, only to discover that our thoughts and wishes fell on deaf ears.  Also I recall the times that innovative or new strategies were being implemented without discussion (with the more senior workers saying, “oh not that system again, been there done that”).  I know we don’t quite have it all figured out in Canada either.

The last of the issues I faced at my placement was a challenging, if nothing at all, relationship with my placement supervisor.  My only consolation was that it wasn’t personal and started on day one.  After 3 months of trying to develop a working relationship, gradually and discretely (although using the back door is normal in this culture) calling on ideas and support from my office mates, other colleagues and of course the NGO leads in Dar, I still couldn’t get him to sit and talk with me about the needs of the centre, my role, my skills, his time away the previous week at a forum on Distance Education (to which I should have been invited), or even the beautiful day and his basic health.  I found the silence and/or aggressive tone hard to take over that length of time and eventually gave up.  A younger or better person may have stuck it out longer or been able to create the change desired, but it evaded me.

Put that together with the e-learning courses being created at Head Office in Seattle (part of my job description) and me completing tasks which are not my bailey wick such as developing a website and a database to track the students and courses (bringing up more questions about ethics and quality assurance as my NGO has already developed a huge and complicated national database which my supervisor didn’t understand and therefore didn’t want to use), I ended up having to leave the placement. 

 

I was number 7 in 2012 to leave the VSO Health sector (not my specific office) and unfortunately the second in a month, so my Tanzanian manager at VSO TZ met this decision with a lot of unspoken frustration (not culture to show true feelings).  I felt sad to leave my colleagues but not sad about leaving Morogoro due to my inability to find safe housing (another story for another day, perhaps).  The good news is that I am alive and well and optimistic about my skills and energy being wanted and needed elsewhere.  Many lessons in the past 3 months, that’s for sure, but feeling good about my decisions and actions.

So what now you ask?  I ask that too.  First I took a much needed Christmas vacation, which I’ll tell you about next.