Words from Tanzania

In Tanzania, there seem to be fewer ways for communication and learning than in the western world. Printed materials such as books and training materials are very costly and many times not available. A very popular way of communicating or presenting a subject or training people is through workshops. Part of the work of the ELCT Diocese of Pare is to help empower people through training workshops where various subjects are targeted such as alternative cropping, batiking, HIV/AIDS awareness, gender equity, beekeeping, fish farming etc.

We have had the opportunity to plug into the Diocese programs and have been part of the organizing and presenting of a few workshops this year, a recent one being the batiking workshop where visiting expert Janet Heinicke from Iowa trained 32 people. I (Todd) have been part of two workshops this year, the first being the grain amaranth (nutritious alternative crop) growing workshop held in a village area for 20 farmers. The second workshop was a beekeeping workshop where 20 farmers were trained how to construct a modern beehive. Honey can be a very good part-time income for a farmer.

Workshops here are organized a bit differently. I remember in the States where if a person wanted to participate in a career opportunity the individual or business would have to support themselves with the necessary seminar fees and transportation, lodging etc. Here in this developing country, if you want participants to show up at your workshop, you must pay for every person’s travel, lodging, food and other expenses. Otherwise, there will be no participants. Our typical western attitudes would be that if there are no seminar fees to attend, why aren’t the people taking advantage of training and career opportunities? Simple, they don’t have the expendable cash to travel from their village to the workshop site. The average travel cost for the participating farmers is around Tshs. 4,000 (about $3.25) one way. Since a farmer in this part of the world earns about $120 – $250 per year, this is serious cash for them.

Once all arrangements for travel, food, meeting rooms, water, chai, and lodging are in place and the participants are gathered in one room, we are finding out that the workshop can be lively, with honest exchanges of information and ideas. We are just fortunate to be able to participate ourselves. More workshops ahead of us, and the learning curve of workshop organizing is behind us.