I have just read Beth's blog about the Muslim Festival that happened in November. The 'second sallah.' You may remember a previous blog post about the 'first sallah' when we went to Kano to celebrate.
We heard that there were going to be good celebrations in Dutse, as it is the capital of Jigawa State so there were 5 VSOs altogther in my Palace and I am proud to announce that we were all from different countries. 5 VSO's representing 5 nationalities.
We had a lovely time and I learnt some good cooking skills and market tips from the others.
The 2 most wonderful moments were that I finally got to experience traditional music and dance in Nigeria. This time each town that paraded brought dancers and musicians. I can't believe that it has taken this long to hear music and dance in Nigeria, apart from in the church.
The second most wonderful moment was on the third day of the parades, all the women and children came out of the homes to watch the parades. I hardly see women so it was a magical moment to place myself amongst (very short - so I could hardly blend in) woman and children.
So please click on the link to hear Beth's tales of her visit to Dutse, photos of the parade and the Emir's Palace.
http://bethharrison.me.uk/?p=145
Thanks Beth
Wednesday 15 December 2010
Tuesday 14 December 2010
Roads in Dutse
Dutse is a small rural town, in a rural state so I am told that it does not represent the whole of Nigeria, but on my first day here when I saw an ox and cart go past my window and I knew I was in Africa! 
You can expect to see anything on these roads, from a donkey laden with piles of sticks ridden by a haggled old man to a large green tortoise crossing the road! (I really did see one once. I was asking the driver so many questions about it that he thought I wanted to go back and ‘pick it!’)
This is the main road in the town. (It is usually busier than this.) You can see the trucks, cars, motorbikes. . . You may also see lorries, bicycles and tractors. There is no pavement so you just walk along (carefully, as at any time, any vehicle can come straight at you, usually a motorcycle) in the dust at the side. I was terrified walking along the roads at first because if you imagine walking along Bournemouth seafront on a sunny day in August and there are crowds of people passing you by in both directions, well this is how close the motorbikes and cars drive past you. I was really worried for my feet being ridden over at first but I am used to it now. This main road is swept by women everyday and as you can see it is in a good condition as most of the roads in Dutse are. Also amongst all the traffic you find can men pushing wheelbarrows, usually full of large containers of water that they are transporting to homes from the well. 
Be prepared to stand aside for a herd of cows (with horns), sheep, goats and chickens. These dirt roads were treacherous to walk down in the rainy season and are strewn with rubbish. You also see the lizards running everywhere here. This was the road to the guest house where I lived for the first couple of months.
You always witness vehicles in this state with numerous number of people on the back. It is a common sight to find ones toppled over on the side of the road. But this doesn’t stop the Nigerians though as they just load everything back in again and continue their journey.
This was my view from the guest house window. Everyone dumps their rubbish in a pile on the side of the road. (The rubbish pile in on the left, behind the sign board.) You can find people sifting through the rubbish and goats and chickens eating it. Sometimes a truck comes to take the rubbish away and put sand on top, then a new rubbish pile is made in a different location. Other times the rubbish is burnt.
At the sides of the roads they have these big drains to catch the rainwater. You often have to balance along the wobbly planks of wood to reach a shop. They drains usually get clogged up with the rubbish and then you see some poor boys standing up to their knees in sewage, sifting it out.
And finally, this is the road to my house, Gida Goma which means 10 houses as there are 10 houses on the street. The building in the middle is the mosque for the men to pray in. My house is just behind the tree on the right with the motorbike parked outside. I am lucky to be living in one of the posh-est streets in the town!
So this is a small glimpse of the town, Dutse, that I am living in. It has taken me a long time to get used to the roads and the way things look but now, although I still don’t understand how the traffic works, and I don’t think I could ever drive on these roads - it is not strange to me anymore.
I thought this blog post would help to give you an idea of the town that I am living in.
You can expect to see anything on these roads, from a donkey laden with piles of sticks ridden by a haggled old man to a large green tortoise crossing the road! (I really did see one once. I was asking the driver so many questions about it that he thought I wanted to go back and ‘pick it!’)
This is the main road in the town. (It is usually busier than this.) You can see the trucks, cars, motorbikes. . . You may also see lorries, bicycles and tractors. There is no pavement so you just walk along (carefully, as at any time, any vehicle can come straight at you, usually a motorcycle) in the dust at the side. I was terrified walking along the roads at first because if you imagine walking along Bournemouth seafront on a sunny day in August and there are crowds of people passing you by in both directions, well this is how close the motorbikes and cars drive past you. I was really worried for my feet being ridden over at first but I am used to it now. This main road is swept by women everyday and as you can see it is in a good condition as most of the roads in Dutse are. Also amongst all the traffic you find can men pushing wheelbarrows, usually full of large containers of water that they are transporting to homes from the well. 
Be prepared to stand aside for a herd of cows (with horns), sheep, goats and chickens. These dirt roads were treacherous to walk down in the rainy season and are strewn with rubbish. You also see the lizards running everywhere here. This was the road to the guest house where I lived for the first couple of months.
You always witness vehicles in this state with numerous number of people on the back. It is a common sight to find ones toppled over on the side of the road. But this doesn’t stop the Nigerians though as they just load everything back in again and continue their journey.
This was my view from the guest house window. Everyone dumps their rubbish in a pile on the side of the road. (The rubbish pile in on the left, behind the sign board.) You can find people sifting through the rubbish and goats and chickens eating it. Sometimes a truck comes to take the rubbish away and put sand on top, then a new rubbish pile is made in a different location. Other times the rubbish is burnt.
At the sides of the roads they have these big drains to catch the rainwater. You often have to balance along the wobbly planks of wood to reach a shop. They drains usually get clogged up with the rubbish and then you see some poor boys standing up to their knees in sewage, sifting it out.
And finally, this is the road to my house, Gida Goma which means 10 houses as there are 10 houses on the street. The building in the middle is the mosque for the men to pray in. My house is just behind the tree on the right with the motorbike parked outside. I am lucky to be living in one of the posh-est streets in the town!So this is a small glimpse of the town, Dutse, that I am living in. It has taken me a long time to get used to the roads and the way things look but now, although I still don’t understand how the traffic works, and I don’t think I could ever drive on these roads - it is not strange to me anymore.
Friday 10 December 2010
IQTE (Islamiyya, Qur’anic, Tsangaya Education)
In these schools the main focus of education is on recitation and understanding of the Qur’an.
Sometimes these schools operate either in the morning or evening and children attend them either before or after their primary school hours.
Other times the children are sent away from home to live in these schools. In this case the school is centred around a teacher called a Malam, and the children, as well as studying the Qur’an, are taught to fend for themselves, e.g. begging for food and money to survive. These children often have to work on farms and sleep on the streets. These children can range in age from 5 years old to 17 years old – all in the same class!
In this second case a project has been set up to introduce the teaching of secular subjects – English, Maths and Hausa (the local dialect). This is because a large number of children who do attend schools are attending Qur'anic schools like these and are not getting a basic primary education. So the religious teachers- the Malams - have selected a respected member of the community, who have completed their secondary education, to teach the secular subjects to their students.
I have been supporting the training of these teachers in Kano State, to gain a better understanding of the project, as they will soon bring this project to Jigawa State (the state I am based in).
One of the topics I was teaching the Tsangaya teachers was how to teach time, just o’clock and half past times. The majority of them did not know how to tell the time to o’ clock and half past! So as well as teaching them methodology of how to teach time I am trying to teach them how to tell the time at the same time!
As English is their second language, there is varying levels of understanding, and the teaching often has to be translated. So it is quite a different and interesting way of teaching.
Those of you who are from St Aldhelm’s School will be pleased to hear that I shared the poem ‘Have you ever seen?’ from the Year 3 plans. As the students have already learnt verbs, colours and animals it is the perfect way to begin forming sentences and making/reading poems. The teachers had great fun making up silly sentences and they were amazing at drawing the imaginative pictures. We then gave a dramatic performance to the management of the project and attracted a lot of attention from anyone passing by!
For those of you who don’t know, their poems went something like. . .
Have You Ever Seen?
Have you ever seen a white lizard reading?
Have you ever seen a green chicken laughing?
Have you ever seen a red dog sweeping?
Have you ever seen a pink goat writing?
Have you ever?
Another project that the teachers were doing was to make simple books in Hausa for their classes to read.
For anyone who would like to help. . .
I know that the community teachers would love to have more books in their classrooms for their students to read and improve their English and I expect that these children have never held or read a book before.
The book I made for demonstration was the poem written above. I took one page for each line of the poem and drew a wonderful picture to go with the sentence. (Actually I had help with the drawing!)
So if anyone would like to a make a picture book using very simple English, it would be much appreciated by all. Even one book will make a huge difference to a class of children who go to work on a farm in the morning, sudy the Qur’an in the afternoon, then go an beg for food in the evenings. You can often see them on the streets with ripped, filthy clothes, shoeless, clutching their plastic bowl for food.
Sometimes these schools operate either in the morning or evening and children attend them either before or after their primary school hours.
Other times the children are sent away from home to live in these schools. In this case the school is centred around a teacher called a Malam, and the children, as well as studying the Qur’an, are taught to fend for themselves, e.g. begging for food and money to survive. These children often have to work on farms and sleep on the streets. These children can range in age from 5 years old to 17 years old – all in the same class!
In this second case a project has been set up to introduce the teaching of secular subjects – English, Maths and Hausa (the local dialect). This is because a large number of children who do attend schools are attending Qur'anic schools like these and are not getting a basic primary education. So the religious teachers- the Malams - have selected a respected member of the community, who have completed their secondary education, to teach the secular subjects to their students.
I have been supporting the training of these teachers in Kano State, to gain a better understanding of the project, as they will soon bring this project to Jigawa State (the state I am based in).
One of the topics I was teaching the Tsangaya teachers was how to teach time, just o’clock and half past times. The majority of them did not know how to tell the time to o’ clock and half past! So as well as teaching them methodology of how to teach time I am trying to teach them how to tell the time at the same time!
As English is their second language, there is varying levels of understanding, and the teaching often has to be translated. So it is quite a different and interesting way of teaching.
Those of you who are from St Aldhelm’s School will be pleased to hear that I shared the poem ‘Have you ever seen?’ from the Year 3 plans. As the students have already learnt verbs, colours and animals it is the perfect way to begin forming sentences and making/reading poems. The teachers had great fun making up silly sentences and they were amazing at drawing the imaginative pictures. We then gave a dramatic performance to the management of the project and attracted a lot of attention from anyone passing by!
For those of you who don’t know, their poems went something like. . .
Have You Ever Seen?
Have you ever seen a white lizard reading?
Have you ever seen a green chicken laughing?
Have you ever seen a red dog sweeping?
Have you ever seen a pink goat writing?
Have you ever?
Another project that the teachers were doing was to make simple books in Hausa for their classes to read.
For anyone who would like to help. . .
I know that the community teachers would love to have more books in their classrooms for their students to read and improve their English and I expect that these children have never held or read a book before.
The book I made for demonstration was the poem written above. I took one page for each line of the poem and drew a wonderful picture to go with the sentence. (Actually I had help with the drawing!)
So if anyone would like to a make a picture book using very simple English, it would be much appreciated by all. Even one book will make a huge difference to a class of children who go to work on a farm in the morning, sudy the Qur’an in the afternoon, then go an beg for food in the evenings. You can often see them on the streets with ripped, filthy clothes, shoeless, clutching their plastic bowl for food.
Thursday 9 December 2010
Class Teacher Module 1 (CT1)
Over the past couple of months we have been working towards training 900 class teachers and head teachers in Jigawa State for what is known as CT1 – Class Teacher Module 1.
There have been copious amounts of planning and preparation. The first has been to decide the content of the workshop to deliver to the teachers. Next the schools had to be selected, followed by which teachers from those schools would be invited. Then we delivered the training to the SSIT (State School Improvement Team). Now, finally, the SSIT go to their various towns throughout the state and deliver the workshop to the teachers.
I travelled to towns called Birniwa and Malam Madori which are approximately 2 ½ hours away from where I am living in Dutse. I supported and mentored some members of the SSIT in delivering the workshop to the class teachers.
It was wonderful to meet and train with the teachers and head teachers to hear their positive feedback about how the previous training has really improved their schools and made them happier in their jobs. The head teachers admit that they had no idea on how to run a school before and they are really pleased to be trained in managing a school and involving the community to support improvements.
Some of the topics the teachers are being trained on are
• how children learn best, e.g. child centred approach to teaching
• how to ask open questions to get children to think - at present the main question asked is ‘do you understand?’ to which the reply is always ‘yes’
• raising children’s self esteem, rather than telling them they are wrong and stupid or shouting at them and intimidating them
• how to get children to work in pairs
• how to use local materials to support learning e.g. stones, bottle tops, sticks etc.
Now that the training has been delivered to the class teachers I am looking forward to joining the SSIT in visiting schools and supporting class teachers and head teachers in practising these new approaches.
There have been copious amounts of planning and preparation. The first has been to decide the content of the workshop to deliver to the teachers. Next the schools had to be selected, followed by which teachers from those schools would be invited. Then we delivered the training to the SSIT (State School Improvement Team). Now, finally, the SSIT go to their various towns throughout the state and deliver the workshop to the teachers.
I travelled to towns called Birniwa and Malam Madori which are approximately 2 ½ hours away from where I am living in Dutse. I supported and mentored some members of the SSIT in delivering the workshop to the class teachers.
It was wonderful to meet and train with the teachers and head teachers to hear their positive feedback about how the previous training has really improved their schools and made them happier in their jobs. The head teachers admit that they had no idea on how to run a school before and they are really pleased to be trained in managing a school and involving the community to support improvements.
Some of the topics the teachers are being trained on are
• how children learn best, e.g. child centred approach to teaching
• how to ask open questions to get children to think - at present the main question asked is ‘do you understand?’ to which the reply is always ‘yes’
• raising children’s self esteem, rather than telling them they are wrong and stupid or shouting at them and intimidating them
• how to get children to work in pairs
• how to use local materials to support learning e.g. stones, bottle tops, sticks etc.
Now that the training has been delivered to the class teachers I am looking forward to joining the SSIT in visiting schools and supporting class teachers and head teachers in practising these new approaches.
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