John Zavalney Volunteers to Help Educate Tanzanian Teachers, Students about Environment

EARLIER THIS YEAR when renown chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall asked John Zavalney to join her and several other volunteers in Tanzania to educate teachers and students about environmental protection and preservation, the Foshay Learning Center science teacher was both shocked and pleased.

"I had no idea she was going to ask me," said Zavalney, who had met Goodall a few months previous. "How do you say no to Jane Goodall? I told her that I would love to go!"

During his three-month visit to the east African country, which was funded by the Los Angeles Systemic Initiative (LA-SI), Zavalney spent most of his time in the cities of Dar es Salaam and Gombe where he and other volunteers educated teachers, students and villagers on the importance of environmental preservation. Zavalney said Tanzania has virtually no governmental environmental regulation; coupled with the fact that the country is poor which made his job difficult at times.

"The [deterioration of the] environment is a big problem there, but they don't know how to deal with it--especially in the small villages where their main concern is survival. How do you tell them that they shouldn't cut down all the trees when they need them for shelter? In those cases we tried to explain to them that it was important not to cut down all the trees. I think they understood."

Zavalney said that through his efforts he hopes that teachers will start talking to their students about the environment and its importance to their survival. "There needs to be an educational process to make a more permanent change."

Zavalney split his time between the more affluent international schools and the poorer village schools--some of which have 100 students to each dirt floor classroom. At those schools, one of Zavalney's main projects was the establishment of a weather station to track weather patterns. He also helped organize and participated in "Roots and Shoots Week, " seven days dedicated to environmental awareness featuring a solidarity walk, street fair and student art festival.

"A lot of the people on the streets gave us the thumbs-up to show their support for what we were doing, so they understood the importance of it."

Zavalney also was given the unique opportunity of negotiating an agreement between Tanzania and the United States that will bring the Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), program to Tanzania. GLOBE is an international organization that educates the people of "third-world" countries on the importance of environmental preservation and protection. As part of Zavalney's participation in the project, he negotiated and finalized the agreement between the US and Tanzania which will expand the program into that country.

During his free time, Zavalney embarked on several safaris--during one of which he got to accompany a team of scientists attempting to free snared baboons.

"We used blowguns to sedate the baboons in order to remove the snares they had been caught in. I got to look at and hold the blow gun, but I never got to use it."

Each year, Goodall recruits several volunteers to do educational work in Africa. During their stay, they live in Goodall's home located on the outskirts of a small village near Dar Es Saalam. "We spent some time talking about (Goodall's) work, but mostly she was on the go. Jane is an incredible woman. She never stops."

Although the house is considered modern by local standards, Zavalney said it still lacked some of the amenities of home, mostly due to Tanzania's current drought condition.

"There was no hot water, so I basically took bucket showers everyday. Beans, rice, potatoes and chicken are the staple foods, so I ate that almost every day. There was no TV and only one radio station, so I definitely missed a lot of things," he said.

Although he returned home this past March, Zavalney's African experience is not yet over. In June, he will return to Tanzania for one week to visit 25 schools to continue environmental education training in conjunction with the Peace Corps.

"The trip was definitely a learning experience, it was a dream come true."