Yesterday, Friday, I was interviewed by an Mwananchi/The Citizen editor, who came with a photographer to take some pictures. The interview lasted about half an hour, but I think they were more interested in the reasons I took Swahili and came to this country, rather than the state of the Chinese school. After this, however, they also talked with the chairman, who I think gave a lot more specifics about the Chinese class. In addition, they were able to come attend an actual class, so I think they have a fairly good idea about some of the things that are going on. Unfortunately, I was told that the article would be published after I had left Tanzania (the reason I was given because it would take up a lot of space), so I may be unable to get a hard copy of it, but I will be able to read it on the internet, and might get one of my professors here to ship me a copy.
Friday night, as I was wrapping up class, I also received a call from Ms. Wang, telling me that they would indeed be coming. I was very excited and after I told the students, they were revved up as well. Upon returning to my host family, however, I received another call from Ms. Wang asking if I could move the time up so that more people from the embassy could go. I said I'd do my best and call her back tomorrow.
On Saturday morning, I headed over to the woodcarvers market, and while waiting for the chairman to arrive, I talked with one of my students,C. Mchingawa, who is an old man who still carves everyday. He told me that if necessary, the students would do the performance whenever the embassy would come. He said it was important to try to take hold of the opportunity to show off their Chinese. I decided to call again in the morning to ask for an ideal time, but soon I was told by Ms. Wang that a time change was no longer needed because not many people could go even if the time were changed. When the chairman arrived, we went to print out a report that I had typed on the Chinese class that we would give to the Chinese Embassy and any other media members that arrived. We also made some preparations to obtain 4 crates of sodas for the event at night.
In the afternoon, I received a call from the Mwananchi editor saying that he could not come because he had just been assigned to go to Morogoro. This was fine as he already had obtained the story the previous day, but I still feel it was a lost opportunity because people from the embassy would have been present. Now if the embassy showed up, and we had said that we would invite people from the media as well as the new teacher, it would look fairly bad.
In the end, only people from the embassy came, which was something good in itself. It was actually a pretty awkward experience, however. Upon arriving Ms. Wang and Mr. Cheng, another member of the embassy, drove their car onto the soccer field in which the school was located. The chairman greeted them, and they gave the chairman some gifts from the embassy, which included some DVDs and books. I then introduced the embassy members to the students, who then welcomed them in Chinese. Up to that point, things seemed to go ok, but then I had to give a speech of sorts to explain why we were gathered here, and since everyone knew different languages, I thought the best language to use would be English. Unfortunately, I have not spoken English for a really long time, and everything that I said, sounded really awkward to me. Anyway, after mumbling something about how we're excited that the embassy has come, that the Chinese community has done much for Tanzania, but a cultural aspect is sorely lacking, the students started their presentations.
I thought the presentations were fairly good. There were a few errors here and there, but that is to be expected. I do not believe the people from the embassy were that impressed, however. There were a few laughs here and there from Ms. Wang and Mr. Cheng, but overall, the atmosphere seemed pretty tense. Also, they asked me many questions during the presentations, which first of all, may have suggested they were disinterested, but the questions also pointed to a lack of absence from other media members and the teacher that I said we inivited. After the students finished the presentation, the chairman tried to get the embassy members to speak a few words, but they kindly declined, and soon they were off. Unfortunately, upon trying to leave, their car got stuck on an incline, and they asked us to bring them some boards. Unfortunately, all the stores were closed already so there were no boards to be found. Eventually, they went at a different angle down the slope and everything was ok. Anyway, I felt we did not exactly give off the best impression, and most of that is my fault for not doing more preparations. Either way, I'm glad they came and hopefully in some way, encouraged the students to continue learning.
I think another thing that went wrong was that we tried to write letters to the media members only. In fact, the only media member that turned up was one in which I personally wrote an e-mail to. If not for them, no one would be covering this story. My guess is not that other media outlets are not interested, but that the person sitting at the front desk never had time, or forgot to give the letter to one of the editors.
Anyway, I think I will call the embassy again on Monday to thank Ms. Wang, apologize for the car incident, and explain more clearly the teacher situation. Before leaving, I hope that the embassy agrees to print more books, if I send them through e-mail. Perhaps in return, I can also make Swahili books for Chinese learners. This way it will be a kind of mutual learning process, rather than a more one sided affair.
No comments:
Post a Comment