ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

My name is Jan. In September, 2008, my husband, David, and I leave our home in Cornwall to spend two years as volunteers in Tanzania.

After a lifetime spent in education in the UK, we wanted to use our skills, in what our friends refer to as our β€˜so-called retirement’, in the service of a developing African country. To reach this point has been a long road, and how we were led to this project is a long story, not to be told here.

David is a chemistry teacher; I am a specialist in language, literacy and dyslexia, and a teacher trainer. We will be based in a teacher training college, in a town called Morogoro, in the eastern half of this huge, beautiful, and very poor country, as Science Adviser and English Adviser respectively.

Meeting some local children

We will be privileged to live in the community, and to work with local colleagues, as together we strive to train good teachers, to deliver high quality education in Tanzanian schools.

There are many challenges in the education system of a developing country: although primary education is free, some children in remote rural areas never make it to school.

HIV/AIDS has robbed some children of their parents, and in child-led families it is survival, not education, that is the priority. I could go on – but there will be opportunities in the months to come to share with you the stories if some of the people we meet.

David and pupils in Tanzania

We are going under the auspices of Voluntary Service Overseas, (VSO) who have already sent us on a number of training courses in the UK with our fellow volunteers. Our first month overseas will be spent in further training, with VSO Tanzania: learning about Tanzania, its life and customs, and learning to speak Kiswahili.

People ask us how we feel, with just a few weeks left in the UK: a wee bit stressed, because there seems to be so much to do, and because the enormity of going so far, for so long, is beginning to dawn, but mainly thrilled, excited, honoured, humbled.

We believe passionately in the power of education to help lift people out of poverty, but it won’t be easy, and it won’t always be fun. Sometimes it will be very, very challenging. We are not going with answers; indeed, our first job will be to try and discover some of the questions!