Kamugisha's farewell

I had an exhilarating experience in Ireland. It is virtually impossible to give a full story of my stay in this beautiful country. I trained at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth as a fellow with the Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium from January to May 2010. I had the company of other trainees from East Africa: Joseph Erume from Uganda, John Kariuki and Sarah Naulikha from Kenya.  Memories of the beautiful university town of Maynooth are still fresh in my mind. I can still remember the wonderful architectural design of the NUIM south campus. Although it was possible to finish all my daily business in the north campus where the CDPC offices are located, I would sometimes walk home or detour through the south campus because the place is so refreshing and welcoming with its wonderful buildings and the surrounding green landscape. I think this is the reason why our fellow trainee from Uganda, Joseph Erume, used to take the long way home to our apartment by trekking all the way from the North Campus, then over the bridge to the south campus, then to the apartment instead of taking the shortest route from the north campus.

I found our apartment very comfortable and attractive. It is a place where you would not feel bored even when you are on your own in the house. Just beside our apartment, you will find a magnificent golf course where Sarah and I used go running in what we used to refer to as “Maynooth marathon”. There we used to meet other guys exercising and sometimes John and Joseph would join us for a walk on this gorgeous site.

I traveled a lot in this country and I came to know many places and their histories through Joseph Clowry (CDPC Education Officer) and Patsy Toland (Self Help Africa). The most interesting trip was the trip to Donegal which included Joseph Clowry, Sarah, Patsy and I. As we were driving to Donegal, Joe and Patsy gave us a brief history about the counties we were traveling through and more particularly about Northern Ireland and its conflicts. Before going to Ireland I used to hear about the Northern Ireland conflict through BBC and Sky News but after hearing narrations from people who experienced the conflict and after visiting Derry, I came to realize that I had only known one side of the story. I visited the Bogside in Derry, the scene of Bloody Sunday and we learnt a lot about the repercussions of this day some 38 years earlier. Since returning to Tanzania, I was delighted to hear about the Saville report or enquiry on the truth of what happened on this day over 38 years ago. It was great for me to visit this place and connect to history.

While in Ireland I had an opportunity to conduct workshops on HIV with secondary school students in the company of Sarah, Joe Clowry, Kariuki and sometimes Patsy. These workshops were fantastic! We exchange ideas with students about various issues regarding the problem. Although some students had little knowledge about the virus, they were very open and enthusiastic to know more about the virus and how they can protect themselves. They were particularly interested to see the connection between HIV and AIDS and poverty. Teachers and the entire administration of the schools were very helpful as they were ready to facilitate in any way to make the workshops succeed. Some students, and mostly in religious based schools, were looking a bit shy whenever I talked about issues of sex and sexuality without use of euphemistic words. This reminded me of the early days of HIV outbreak in Tanzania when talking about sex in public was considered a taboo but all this change as our communities became more and more ravaged by the virus. I hope that the Irish people start talking about the virus before it is too late. Even as I left there was bad news about the increasing prevalence of HIV in Ireland. The rate is low but on a steady increase!! I was also shocked to find that condoms are very expensive in Ireland (about 6 Euros for a pack of three condoms) than in Tanzania (about 0.05 Euro and sometimes free). All students who participated in the workshops complained about the high cost of condoms and that it is too expensive for them to use a condom. Some students even joked that they would prefer to use the money for beer rather than buying condoms! I hope the Irish government will listen the cries of these young people by making condoms affordable for these young people and reduce the tax on condoms. Condoms are not a luxury item.

During my stay in Ireland I also attended various workshops related to the issues of foreign aid. These workshops were organized by Irish Aid, Self Help Africa, Irish Development Education Association and the other one organized by students at Dublin City University (DCU). At the DCU meeting, we were honoured to be invited to this small group meeting and listened to Minister Peter Power debate the governments approach to working with the developing world. At this meeting we were very impressed with Michael Doorly from Concern and his passion for development and development education. I was very impressed to see how Irish people from all walks of life are committed to provide whatever little they have for charity to help people in African countries like Tanzania. I equally felt ashamed after learning that the Irish population is about four million and it this small population provides so much for about forty million of people in Tanzania! Tanzania is naturally endowed with minerals, forests and biodiversity, marine resources, massive fertile lands, animal parks etc and Ireland does not have even half of these resources. found  Still our country is overwhelmingly depending on foreign aid such as that provide by Irish Aid and other charities from Irish people. Are our resources poorly managed for the benefit of the small minority of Tanzanians particularly the business and elite class? I dream of a day when all the poor in Tanzania will have access to quality education, health services, water, housing, and communication infrastructure. This will be the day when pro-poor policies will be born.

I hope for the day when Tanzanian students will be exposed to Development Education, Science Innovation as the students in Ireland are.

I feel indebted to reciprocate the great hospitality I received from Joe Clowry, Patsy, Tom Strong, Hayley, Jamie, Ting Ting and many other staff and students at NUIM for you made my stay in Maynooth a enjoyable one and I would like to say asante sana!