Endulen Diary
Vol. 24, #12
December, 2009
First Days of Narropil Sironga at Tumaini University
MY LIFE AT IRINGA
Iringa is one of the regions in Southern Tanzania. It is a rocky southern highland area. Our university is located at Iringa municipal council. Indigenous people living in Iringa region include the Wahehe, Wabena and Wakinga. Economic activities undertaken in this region include agricultural crop production (especially maize production), small business activities and plank tree projects for production of trees for construction activities. This region is quite different from Arusha region where I used to live. Iringa town is relatively smaller compared to Arusha town, it is an older town established during the colonial era. You can still find very old type buildings constructed by the Germans while they were ruling in Tanzania a century years ago. This is a very hot season for Iringa, it is said that during May and June it will be very cold. A lot of terrifying thunderstorms usually happen when it rains; I am very much afraid of thunderstorms, I used to hide in my room when it rains. There are a lot of mosquitoes especially during the night. I have a mosquito net which helps me to get rid of the stubborn mosquitoes when I sleep. But when I get out of the net for making my study revision I have to wear the tracksuits and long socks to protect myself from mosquito bites.
Tumaini University Is owned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania. Tumaini University, Iringa University College is blessed to have a very large number of students, thousands of them having different behaviors and cultures. English and Swahili languages are the tools of our communications; otherwise every individual has her or his own vernacular language. Many girls wear very short and tight clothes which are not common in village life or in our culture. I find their wearing styles awkward but I am learning cross cultural styles and therefore I have to enjoy the cultural differences, we are taught in one of our studies that no culture is superior to the other.
Lecturers (Teachers) at Tumaini University, Iringa University College, teach nicely and they are really helping in developing our academic excellence. They give us a lot of assignments and library tasks. This is very different from what I used to observe at Machame Clinical Officers training College where we used to study only subjects related to health issues of a human being. We are being taught so many subjects here at Tumani University Iringa Campus which includes Communication Skills, Developmental Psychology, Introduction to Psychology, Interpersonal Skills, Conflict Management, Counseling Skills and Information Computer Technology. At first, I had to learn how to look for materials in a multidisciplinary library such as our University library which is having a lot of books for different courses. I have learned how to use the library by learning the international classification of books so us to be able to locate books relevant to my studies. I have also learned how to use internet at the library for searching online academic materials. However, the internet is not very good since it is not fast for searching, sometimes the Universal Resource Locator (URL) is not available and as a result it becomes difficult to get online materials.
After studying introduction to the counseling courses, I have realized that it is a very good course for me. It will help me to understand better about myself (my weakness and strength) and how to improve my capabilities. It also helps me to understand the behavior of different individuals (Psychology) and how to help people in different life situations. Counseling is there to direct me on how to live with people in the community and the way of helping them when there is a need. It is therefore true that counseling has opened a new page in my life. I will study hard so as to pass well my studies and become a professional counselor so as to be able to help people in the community since human beings have a lot of needs which requires psychotherapy assistance, they don’t only need hospital drugs. Sometimes individuals become sick due to conflicts within themselves for example some interpersonal or intra personal conflicts can cause someone to poison herself or himself by taking poisonous chemicals, these persons can only be assisted through psychotherapy by helping them to know how to solve their problems and not escape them by killing themselves through poisons.
Apart from class works I also attend other extracurricular activities. I am the member of the church choir for which I used to meet with my fellows at least twice per week. I have also been selected to be a leader of Tumaini University Catholic Women Association. I attend morning prayers during the days of the week from Monday to Friday and the Holly Mass on Sunday which takes place at 7:00 am and ends at 9:00am. After the church service we used to visit our friends and sometimes the sick. We also go to the market to purchase some materials for use at home.
I live in a small room in a hostel. I have a bed, a table for studying, book shelf, dressing table, cupboard, two chairs and a gas cooker. Within a room there is a toilet and bathroom constructed together. I used to cook for myself at evening and during the afternoon I eat food at the cafeteria on the University campus since the classes proceed so frequently to the extent that no time to step out for food at home.
Till next month,
ned