A New Semester

We are now three weeks into the new semester. My first semester here was like hugging a tornado, there was so much to learn. Although I had taught undergraduate through doctoral, it was never as a member of a university. This is certainly a new experience since my normal career is with industry. Still, my purpose here has been fulfilled, to bring new ideas and ways of thinking about technology.

The department chair asked me to teach two courses: neural networks / fuzzy logic, and distributed systems. These are presented as a combination of theory and practice in the hopes that the students will take away usable skills for their own careers. As in all classes, there is a range of students. At the end of two weeks one could already see the grade curve forming. My main effort is to get the hump of that curve to move to the right.

Generally, the culture of Zimbabwe does not put as much emphasis on starting a meeting on time as we do in the United States. However, each of my lectures starts on time. Students who arrive late have to talk to their fellow students to get what was said. But, everyone has copies of the course slides and reading materials. The slides are my own and the readings are from open-access sources. Needless to say, there are students who, even after three weeks, do not have a clue. These are the ones who show up late, if they show up at all, or who spend their time looking at their phones instead of paying attention. Just like in the States too, there are students who disrupt the class with private conversations. The big difference here is that the university does not expect lecturers to wet-nurse students. They get the grade they earn. It is also possible for me to have a disruptive student removed from the class. That is very different from my experiences teaching in the States.

Let us not focus on the low-end of the performance-ethic curve. There are many many solid students. They are a joy to teach. They ask good questions and offer intelligent discussion. Usually, these students hesitate to raise their hand during class. So, we have a lot of Q/A/D during lab sessions, or they come to my office. That is fine by me. The goal is to teach in such a way that students become well educated and as ready to start their careers as we can make them. I await their course projects with great anticipation.

This is a typical classroom. 95% of them open to the outside and are not contained within a larger building. They are constructed either of brick or the pre-fab material shown here. Mostly, there is no air conditioning or fans. These rooms are very hot, like an oven, during the summer. During the Spring and Fall it gets better, but not by much.

Inside, students arrange furniture to their convenience. The lecturer typically stands at the front of the class and lectures from there or moves about the room. Projectors are hard to come by so I do not bother trying to get one. Instead, I simply tell the class which slide I am on. That appears to work fine but it is not possible to point to anything on a slide while I am talking. Most classrooms have a black or white board so that pictures or diagrams can be drawn to emphasize a point.

Although lecture and lab times are serious, we do have a bit of fun now and then. We gather together for a soda, discussion, and socializing whenever we can.

Taking Time Off

This Christmas holiday I decided to take a bus from Chinhoyi to Harare. Stayed at the Bronte Hotel, a nice homey bed-and-breakfast at a reasonable price that is surrounded by a large garden with paths.

Returning to Chinhoyi, I attended Mass on Christmas day. The manger in the Church is really a work of African art.

Something you may find interesting is the “fast food” scene. For a cheese burger, one goes to the local grocery store and asks the cook to make one for you.

All, in all, it is a restful period. Things start cranking up again on 5 January. Lectures start in March.

Moved from Hotel to House

After about a month living in the university’s hotel, I was moved to a house on campus. It is a very nice abode. On-campus housing is not at all uncommon for senior faculty and staff. My own home is only a brief walk to the Canteen, where I eat all my meals for $US2.50 per day. A further few minutes walking takes me to my office and the various lecture halls.

Faculty housing is located right near student housing and also near the gym and sports fields. Given the amount of energy students have, you can imagine the 24/7 activity that abounds when school is in session. There are 6,000 students. About half live on campus.

Here are pictures of my home’s outside and living room. I do not use cable TV because the two channels I want are only available in the most costly package, $US77/month. What I do is go over to the hotel bar to socialize, watch soccer, and listen to music. Enjoying science fiction, I download novels from Smashwords to my Nook.

Getting to Church

Getting to the nearest Roman Catholic Church is an hour walk. I don’t drive yet because everything is opposite here, including where the driver sits and where the controls are. A friend is teaching me to drive but, after the last lesson, he has not been at work for a few days. Maybe he had to rest for awhile. :)

Although I normally attend the Western-style Mass in English, the Mass in Shona is not to be missed. The liturgical music is something to hear since the people are very enthusiastic about their faith in God and their practice of his way. Overall, the people of Zimbabwe are very friendly and welcoming, although one does run into a few who still have emotions derived from colonial days. Given the violence of their separation from colonial domination only 30 years ago, one can not blame people for that. What one needs to do is become a valued member of a trusted network. Then trust builds.

Here are some pictures of the Church itself. Mary’s grotto is to the left of the main Church, as you face it. Her grotto gets a lot of use as people come for private prayer. The rectory is to the right of the main Church.

Arrived in Chinhoyi

We left Harare for Chinhoyi at 9am. After a pleasant two-hour drive, we arrived at the hotel associated with the university. One of the university’s programs is in hospitality and the hotel, along with its restaurant and bar, are part of the training program. It is fully-functional three-star hotel. 

The room was very small, just enough space for a bed, some closet space, a TV, and a laptop-sized table. But, it was very comfortable. The university paid for room and board for about a month while they arranged for a house in faculty quarters. It is common in Zimbabwe for compensation to be paid in a combination of cash, housing, transportation, healthcare, and social security.

After lunch I was introduced to the department chair, Ms. Mary Muhonde. She took me on a whirlwind tour of the campus and I met a large number of people. The next day I was assigned an office. Thank God it was one of the few air-conditioned offices

For someone from a cool climate, the heat here during the summer is brutal. Although I have been to Zimbabwe before, it was never during their summer, and never outside Harare, a mile high in the mountains. Chinhoyi is about half-way down the mountain, and in a valley. So, it is hotter here in any case. The lowlands are hotter still.

There was little in the way of formal in-processing. After a couple of weeks I mentioned to the department chair about a few friendly encounters with security people. She was surprised at it all and then realized I had not yet been issued an identification card. We got that taken care of. But, everyone on this campus seems to know of me. As I said in another post, everything is the opposite here, even my skin color.  :)  That apparently served as my “ID card”, and still does. Nobody ever asks me for it but I always show it when appropriate.

Arrived in Harare

Arrival during the business day is standard for me. It is safer than at night and one can talk to terminal personnel about selecting a cab. Of course, now I use the same driver. I just call him and he comes. He is very reliable and cost-effective. One can also go straight to the in-terminal Econet booth to arrange for air time and to check that one’s phone number is still active. For newcomers, a phone can be purchased, a line inserted, and air time arranged. This process is very quick and the Econet's agents are very knowledgeable and capable. If you have an existing phone, a line can be purchased and inserted.

Something interesting happened during luggage inspection. The inspector saw my personal card on top of my things after opening the first bag. He said with some excitement, “This is you?” After I said yes he asked if he could keep the card. The inspection went very smoothly. I was quite grateful. Things still took two hours from the time I got off the plane to the time I left the customs area for the general terminal.

After arrival in Harare during my trips to Zimbabwe, I always stay awake as long as possible. This allows my body to begin adjusting to the time difference. Generally, when it is daylight in Dayton, it is night time in Zimbabwe. In fact, everything is the opposite in Zimbabwe, compared to Dayton. In this particular case, after 48 hours of travel and little sleep, I did not make it past 5:30pm. Then I slept for about 16 hours.

After having some lunch the next day, I visited the Zimbabwean Office of Immigration. It was necessary to present the letter they had sent me approving my residency visa and work permit. With that letter, my passport could be appropriately stamped. That took two business days, with an intervening weekend. Thankfully, I had followed the US Embassy’s advice to always carry a photocopy of my passport. Zimbabwe is very strict about such things and it is easy to find one’s self arrested and deported for violating even the smallest rule.

While waiting for the Immigration Office to finish their work, I visited the Roman Catholic Cathedral for Mass and attended a workshop given by various entrepreneur centers in Zimbabwe and other African countries. Employment is very low in Zimbabwe so there is a great effort to get people involved in personal enterprises. Of course, there was also the National Art Museum right next to my hotel. Made sure to visit the local office of my sponsor. There are two of us here in Zimbabwe for the next ten months. The other one teaches at the Women’s College in Harare.

On the day I received my passport back, fully stamped, I called the human resources department at the Chinhoyi University of Technology. We made arrangements for them to pick me up the next morning.

Getting There

48 grueling hours after I left my home in Dayton Ohio, I arrived at the hotel in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe Africa. My sponsor insisted on arranging for tickets and that US-flagged carriers be used. There are no US-flagged carriers that fly into Zimbabwe. So, they lease seats on foreign carriers in order to make the claim of flying into places they physically do not go. The trip went from Dayton to Chicago on United, to Frankfurt Germany on Lufthansa, to Johannesburg South Africa on South African Airlines, and finally to Harare on South African Airlines. There was a lot of time spent sitting in airports. Luckily, one could find a quite corner to curl up in to grab some sleep. (I don’t sleep well on airplanes for some reason.)

On my own money and arrangements, it is possible to make the trip in less than half the time at less than half the cost. What I have done in the past is fly from Dayton to DC on United, then to Addis Ababa (capital of Ethiopia) on Ethiopian Airlines, then to Harare on Ethiopian Airlines. There is no difference at all in level of service and comfort, and there is very little time spent hanging around terminals. In both cases, one can arrive during the business day, which is better all around.