Tanzania, Day 4

July 20 2010

This was our first 'in earnest' day at MRI so I'm sure glad that I got an ok sort of sleep last night. Yesterday was the day for MRI to introduce themselves to us and today was our day to start formally presenting our expertise (such as it is). We began with an introduction to College of the Rockies,showed a little promotional video & powerpoint presentation. Actually people were quite interested to learn about their new Canadian partner.

We then gave a presentation about competency-based education and training (how we see it) and struggled to find out how the concept is understood and applied in Tanzania. Later we facilitated a small-group workshop activity to practice creating competencies.

I can't say it was easy, really. There are strong cultural differences in workshop behaviour between Canada and Tanzania. For example, it is very hard to pull feedback from this group! You ask a question & there is virtually no response. You have to beg, pull teeth to get someone to answer a posed question, even an easy one. We saw the same behaviour when working in Kenya: it is just one of those realities.

We went for lunch at the New Dodoma hotel. Mr. Ndabizi suggested this because Doug & I wanted to see if the New Dodoma was a viable alternative to the Twiga, here we are now staying. Clearly, it is!! There is an internet cafe with wired computers & people actually using the connection (for proof) & an attendant on duty. The hotel is in the middle of town & it looks as if it would be quite reasonable to go for a walk in the area (not so possible where we are now, 8 km from town). One of our MRI colleagues confirmed that walking around that area was safe enough. The hotel is big, attractive, bright. There are choices for meals & the lunch we had today was really very good. And (this is amazing) the price is even cheaper than the Twiga! How can this be...? Never mind; we are switching our accommodations to the New Dodoma tomorrow morning. Internet, walking, good food -- it will be paradise.

We returned late from lunch to MRI but continued the session as planned about advisory committees. We heard about MRI's Industrial Relations unit, the unit that links the institute with mines, explorations, & lab companies, and coordinates students' field attachments. You can't help but be impressed by MRI's enthusiasm, vision, hard work, resourcefulness, and sheer intelligence.

Of course, there are some challenges. Most of the mining companies do not participate as much as MRI wants or needs. MRI finds it almost impossible to procure real live mining equipment so that the students can effectively practice on the equipment they will see on the job site. It is so frustrating just to listen: the foreign mining companies prefer to hire their own foreign nationals for technical positions because they can get the employment quality they expect but they won't contribute to the skill development of their host country. One of our tutor-participants, when asked to respond anonymously on a sticky-note about what he wanted most to learn about in the coming days, wrote 'I would like to know how to apply competency-based assessment when you have no tools or equipment to practice with.' Yes indeed; I am wondering about that too. And so you have little but enthusiastic and hard-working institutes like MRI trying desperately to get a share of the good life for Tanzanian students, trying to compete educationally against (seemingly) impossible odds. It opens your eyes and makes you mad.