Melissa Head's East

Extreme Makeover: Kitchen Edition - beware it's a long post!

2008-12-15T14:49:00.005+02:00

The idea for these renovations came when Bob and Ruta visited Mwanza. We really want the mamas to get to a high level of quality control according to FDA standards so that in the future their yogurt can be sold more widespread in local stores. The big roadblock came because in the existing kitchen it would have been very hard to maintain these standards, so when we found out that we could level the floor off, put in some tiles and make countertops it really made things a bit more possible. But even with the renovations the mama’s will still have to make some changes in the way they conduct their business and their routines, but it is something they say they are willing to do.

So that’s a little backround behind the renovations (you know kind of like the ‘intro--get to know the family’ part on the home makeover shows!)

All the renovations done to this kitchen were done by hand. Throughout the process I kept thinking about how back home a machine could mix the cement and sand rather than the continuous shoveling of a pile of dirt that was done on the kitchen floor! I have had to put immense trust in our fundi. Fundi is the Kiswahili word for craftsman….so it can be used to describe maintenance workers, carpenters, and in our case floor fixer/counter maker/tile installer. The mama’s keep calling the fundi ‘fundi’….so I don’t even know his actual name, so when I say Fundi….I mean him! Anyways, he’s a great fundi, and actually understands when I try to explain things to him in my broken Swahili and elaborate hand motions, which to me meant he knew what he was doing.

I must say that when we first discussed these renovations we made it seem much simpler in our heads. There have been many moments where I’ve thought “OMG what are they doing to the kitchen”, and those moments tended to happen when I didn’t have someone to translate my worries! So most of the time I just stepped back and left it all to Fundi, because he did know what he was doing…after all what do I know about fixing a concrete floor in Tanzania!

Day 1:
The first day of the renovations fell on World Aids day, so I already described to you the craziness in Mabatini that day. On top of that I was trying to get the mama’s to clear out the kitchen. We stored some stuff at Mtoni High School since it has closed for holiday and some stuff at Mama Elizabeth’s house. The fridges had to stay because the school does not have electricity and yogurt was still being made and people were still coming for it! But trying to get the mamas to completely clear out the kitchen was the hardest thing and there was still quite a bit that was left. There is a huge cabinet in the kitchen and that took almost an hour to get out. It was nailed into the wall, but between the mamas, some local guys who came to help and a very strong iron bar Mama Leah found, it made it out okay but left behind a nice collection of dust that was underneath it.

Day one started with paint. I went into town with the painter who is actually a neighbour to some of the mamas, to get the supplies and then him and his friends started the job. The kitchen was in great need for a new coat of paint. There is a gorgeous mural on one wall of the kitchen which was not being touched, expect for filling in some parts where the concrete had been chipped off, but the other three walls got a nice new coat of light blue paint. I was disappointed we could not find the exact colour the walls had been (an aqua), but the blue was a very nice alternative.

Another plus for being at the kitchen so much now is that I get lots of Baby Jaimie time! She has changed so much in these past months. She is constantly trying to eat my hands and hair, and is crazy strong. I’m quite sad I won’t be able to see her as she continues to get older because she is quite the character!

Day 2:
Tuesday was the start of the Tunaweza campaign, so that left the painters to continue their work while we were all at the event. The morning was quite exhausting and it was almost unbearably hot (I say ‘almost’ because I would take this heat over the cold weather I am coming home to any day!). Afterwards I had to go into town to get some more paint thinner as the painters were all out and we met with Fundi to set a game plan for the floor/tile project. Thankfully a local friend of the mama’s, Stanley, was there to help with the translating, and then we, along with Fundi were off to get sand and cement.

OMG what are they doing to the kitchen? moment #1: Sand?? Really? I thought to fix a cement floor all you would need was cement? So, I needed thorough explanations as to why they needed the sand, but of course once it was explained to me it made perfect sense; the sand is mixed with the cement so that you do not need as much of it because it’s expensive.

Getting the cement was easy, you can get it anywhere, but the sand was a different story. We took a dala dala somewhere, and then Fundi talked to some people to negotiate a price, and then we took off in a huge truck to another somewhere quite far away to dig up a huge quantity of sand. Fundi and Stanley got a kick out of me dozing off as we were driving, and then when we pulled up to the kitchen with a truckload of sand the mamas kept saying “Pole Melissa” because they could tell how tired I was! We deposited the sand outside the kitchen in a huge pile and called it a day! I left the mama’s with the instructions that the kitchen would have to now be emptied a lot more since the fundi would be starting the floor the next day.

Day 3:
I got to the kitchen to find the mama’s making yogurt and very much stuff still all around them. The painter and his friends were just doing a few touchups, and the Fundi was just getting there. I was a bit frustrated that the mama’s still hadn’t managed to empty the kitchen and that they were making yogurt in it, because they told me they’d be able to make it in a little community room behind the kitchen. So I just took a couple minutes and played with Baby Jaimie before getting everyone moving and getting the table and chairs and other random stuff out of the kitchen. Eventually Fundi and his workers were able to start……

OMG what are they doing to the kitchen? moment #2: One of the fundi’s workers started hammering the floor breaking it up into pieces! I was thinking they just needed to mix a little sand and cement and put it in to the spots where the floor wasn’t level…smooth it off and then be good to go. Apparently not. I looked to the mama’s and they didn’t seem worried and said that that is what he was supposed to do. I guess the floor was much to damaged to just fill in the gaps, and the way they were fixing it was ideal for them putting in tiles.

I chose to sit outside for a bit while the Fundi’s were hammering away and when I went back in I was in for another surprise.

OMG what are they doing to the kitchen? moment #3: The hammer was no longer breaking up the floor but now denting in the lower half of the wall! I was a bit stunned to say the least. The only thing that was suppose to happen was putting tiles on thewall not start chipping away at it! Once again I tried to convey the fact that I did not understand what was happening but just got the usual nod and that everything was “sawa” (okay). I was quite overwhelmed. With a week and a half left in Mwanza and the kitchen being the way it was, I really started to doubt that it was all going to work.

So I decided to go into town for a bit and run some errands, and I think leaving the mess that was once a yogurt kitchen was for the better. I came back a bit later to what was still a pretty big mess, but at least it was one where a process was evident. Eventually I figured out that the denting the wall would make it easier for the tile cement and tiles to stick…..which makes complete sense once again. So basically, Fundi really knows what he’s doing and I clearly don’t have a clue!

By the end of the day the floor was all leveled, but there was still another exhausting/annoying adventure ahead of us. One of the big things we wanted to do with these renovations was make countertops for the mamas, because the previous kitchen had none, and a lot of things were done on the floor. While I was thinking all we needed were some concrete blocks and concrete to put it all together I was once again completely off base. Fortunately Fundi understood exactly what we wanted for the mamas, and he also knew how to do it right. Here I was thinking that concrete blocks would be sufficient, but really we also needed wood, mesh wire, piping, and stones to ensure that the counter top was strong and wouldn’t collapse. So we went on a mission to get all these materials. I thought that 2 hours would be plenty of time to get the stuff and then give me a chance to go home, shower, and eat before going to the Blood Brothers musical production with the Forever Angel’s volunteers, but I was once again very wrong. We left at 4pm and got the wood, nails, and piping without a problem, and then negotiated with a pickup truck driver to drive us to get the concrete blocks and then take us back to Mabatni. At this point we were still making fantastic time; we got our concrete blocks, but had to wait a while for them to write me a receipt (sidebar--- getting receipts for everything has actually been one of the most time consuming parts of this process!). Either way, we still would have made it back to Mabatini with more than enough time. But then the pickup wouldn’t start. It was one of the sketchiest trucks I have seen. It kept stalling as we were driving, and the door didn’t really have a handle. There was a wire that you had to pull from the inside…which wasn’t a problem because there was no window that could have been in the way! So we waited while the driver and his friends tried to fix their truck. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to work when they popped the hood and I could see through to the ground; and then they started lighting matches and picking up sticks and leaves from the ground. To top it off one guy starting using his mouth to blow into a little tube that was attached to something important near the engine. 6pm came around and they still hadn’t fixed it, so I insisted that we find another truck. We got another vehicle and started moving the stuff over. Our first truck drivers wanted to be paid the whole price we agreed on, but there was no way I was doing that since they didn’t actually finish the job, and I think Fundi was quite impressed that I stuck to my guns on that. In the second truck we were doing good, making our way through the bumpy, busy Mabatini street. We were almost at the kitchen when this truck also decided to break down on us! This driver was once again confident he could fix it, so since we were so close to the kitchen I told him and Fundi to meet me there. 6:30 rolled around and they still hadn’t made it, and by that time I was already late, so I had to leave and still didn’t get to have my shower and food. I found out the next day that they didn’t get the truck fixed, so the mama’s being the amazing people that they are walked down and helped Fundi and his team bring the stuff back up to the kitchen.

To top off the already long day, I made it to Isamilo School just in time for the start of the musical. During the first half I noticed that I was sitting much lower than all of the other people. I wiggled a bit and then realized that my chair seemed to be broken. I tried to move very little, hoping to make it to the halfway break to investigate the situation further, but that didn’t work. I sat up a bit and tried to adjust the chair, and then ‘wham!’ it collapsed and sent me to the floor……….just as a group musical number was beginning.

Yup, Wednesday was a loooooong day! 2 broken trucks + 1 broken chair………but don’t worry the kitchen is going to turn out just fine….trust me J.

Day 4
I’m not too sure how you could top what happened the day before, but the mama’s really enjoyed recounting the stories of the broken trucks. When I then told Mama Paskwualina about the broken chair she thought it was even funnier and also had tell everyone about that!

I took a cab in the morning to pick up the tiles, but when I got there and realized there was about 800 kg of stuff to bring back with the kitchen I had to opt to take the store’s pick up truck to Mabatini instead of the tiny cab I brought with me. Fortunately this one didn’t break down!

At the kitchen the floors were flat and the Fundi’s started building the counter structure. The day went smoothly. The mama’s were finally making yogurt in a different room near the kitchen and while there was still a little pile of stuff in the kitchen, it was all things the mama’s needed often throughout the day, and could be easily moved so I was okay with it.

The wall tiles even got started, which made me feel really good, and gave the mama’s a chance to see what I had been telling them about for the past 2 weeks.

Day 5
I have quite a nice routine now. I go to the kitchen early in the morning to see how things are going, and if the Fundi needs anything. I play a bit with Jaimie, sit with the mamas, and help distribute yogurt. Afterwards I go back to the apartment to have a sort of brunch, and then go to town for a hour or two to try to finish up some other things. Basically, I’ve had to go to the same place multiple days I in a row, juts to get one task completed. Normally I wouldn’t mind this (remember “TIA” – This Is Africa), but with very little time left in Mwanza, it is very annoying and time consuming. I’ll go back to the kitchen in the afternoon, have some lunch and chai with the mamas, check out what’s happened in the kitchen during the day and see what else needs to be prepared.

The work being done in the kitchen is all the same, it just takes a while. The tiles are being put in and the counter tops made. Fundi and his team are very cool people to, and they’ve done a really great job and I’m glad it was someone that the mama’s knew helping fix up the kitchen. What’s most satisfying to me is that I can see how proud the mama’s are of these changes. I was worried that they were not going to like it, but they do, and it’s not as if they are just saying they like it to my face. I hear when they are talking to a visitor, or when they first walk into the kitchen for the day and say “Pendeza” which means “pretty/beautiful”. It really makes me feel good about these renovations because if the mamas didn’t like them, then it would be worthless because they’re the ones who’ll be working in the environment.

Day 6
Same old same old: kitchen very early…..was invited to my friends Sophie and David’s house for lunch with their family…..back to the kitchen…..Ultimate frisbee. Kitchen looking good, but looks like we’ll be needed some more tiles. I forgot to factor in the size of the counter tops when planning how much to buy!

Day 7:
This was my last day going to Nyamwilolelwa for my research project so I was not at the kitchen at all. It was very weird considering I have been there every day for the past week, and have no idea what to expect on Monday morning!

Day 8:
Floor Tiles!!!! Got to the kitchen early to see nearly the whole kitchen tiled! It was great. It’s really all coming together. I had to go back to the tile place to pick up more tiles and then was able to talk with Robert at the kitchen about all the things I needed to get done in my last week. I resorted back to writing lists of everything I have to do. I have not wrote lists like this for months, so it kind of makes me feel like it’s exam season and I have too much to do…..well I guess that’s fair since it actually/theoretically is exam season back at home. We had a nice lunch with the mama’s, chai and sweet potatoes (which btw are not orange here!), and then welcomed a wood fundi (finally!) to take measurements to make our shelves, benches, and bar for the kitchen.

The Home Stretch:

I figure I’ll just lump in the last of the renovations as well as my last days in Mwanza in this part. It was a very up and down week for me. I really am not quite ready to go home. Of course I am so excited to see all my family and friends, but I really have grown to love life in Mwanza……that is before this last week I was here. It was such a frustrating week for me, trying to get things done, but also wanting to enjoy my last days, and because I was on such a time crunch it made for some not so fun times. I really hate that I had to feel so stressed during this past week, but there were definitely also wonderful moments amidst it all. Let’s go through the High’s and Low’s

Low #1 – The first wood fundi seemed a little drunk when he came to check out the kitchen, so we decided to not have him build our stuff. Unfortunately, the Kivulini wood Fundi didn’t come until a couple days after to take measurements. By that time the tiles were done, but none of the furniture, and the original plan was to coordinate these both to be done at the same time to avoid what did actually happen………

I came to the kitchen one morning to find all the tiles done and beautiful, but then quickly forgot about that when I noticed the mess the mamas had already made moving back in some of the stuff! I was speechless and disappointed because the mama’s weren’t even using the renovations to their potential. With newly made countertops, the burners were still sitting on the floor, with the milk boiling! I can understand that the mama’s are very used to the way they do things, and really for them to make such big changes is hard, but it’s something they said they wanted to do, so I was very confused. As well, apparently there have been people down Mabatini who have expressed feelings of jealousy about what is happening to the kitchen, so I can see why they wanted to stop making yogurt in the community office and move it back to the kitchen. I told the mamas to not bring anything else into the kitchen until we got the pieces from the wood fundi, so that it all could be properly organized. So the renovations had a bit of a plateau.

Low #2 – Many meetings and appointments I had were either late, or needing me to come back again the next day.

Low #3 – Monday and Tuesday were holidays in Tanzania, and holidays here are so unpredictable, because some things are open, some things aren’t. Some people work, others don’t….especially the people I needed to see.

Low #4/High #1 – I hadn’t been to Forever Angels in weeks, and was desperately missing the kids, so I made a point to go very early one morning for just an hour. My journey there was a bit harsh. Walking down the street to the dala dala stand, none of the shops were open yet, so there were few people around. Just ahead of me, was a man clearly not in his right mind. He was yelling at a dala dala and waving his arms around. He suddenly went down and picked up this huge mud/rock ball off the road and looked like he was going to throw it. I have felt very safe here in Mwanza, but that was one moment where I was a little worried. A man behind me saw me hesitate, and just told me to keep walking. Instead I decided to cross the street, and as I was crossing, the other man smashed the mud/rock ball to the ground. I was relieved it was at the ground, and not actually at someone, but I unfortunately got the brunt of that smash when a piece of the rock bounced off my ankle bone, leaving it quite sore. So that’s the low….but Forever Angel’s is the high of this story. I could not believe how much the children changed in the two weeks it had been since I visited. Nearly all the big baby’s were walking around, which means that they’ll be causing a lot more trouble now. 2 of the children’s adoptions have finally been approved. These families have literally been waiting months and months for just one lousy letter, but everyone’s happy that they can go to their new home for Christmas. I rushed into town after my visit to the baby home for a meeting only to have to wait a whole hour for the person to show up! L

High #2 – Lunch with the Street Kids. Some wonderful people back home had given me some money to use to help some local people here. I was able to disperse the amounts over many different things, but one that I am most happy with was the lunch I had for the street kids. These kids would never actually see money that comes through organizations, and I hate that I usually just pass them on the street, but it’s very hard because if you help one, then they will all want something. When Nancy (one of the Baby Home volunteers) suggested that I could buy them all lunch, I loved the idea, and could actually keep it semi-organized. So with the help of Stanley translating to the street kids “Come to Ghandi hall at 12pm for food”, I was able to feed them a lunch that they really needed. We really only talked directly to about 8 kids, but in the end about 25 had shown up…..but I was prepared for that. I got a bunch of bananas, samosas, chapattis, donuts, and some other random things, and sure enough at 12pm there were already some kids playing in the trees at near Ghandi Hall. More came, and then it started to rain, so we ran to a street shop for shelter. I’m sure it was quite a sight….me leading 10 or so street kids to and from the park. And so we fed them, and they were hungry! Some got a little greedy, so I had to pull out the “Acha” and “Hapana”, when they would try to claim a whole bag of chips plain to themselves, but overall they were a lot of fun, and genuinely good kids. On the streets all I ever hear from them are “Mzungu, give me money” and they’ve sometimes even thrown rocks at me, but in this setting, with me approaching them, they were very grateful and polite and kept calling me Mwalimu (teacher). I could see some of the kids saving food for later too, and I’m so glad that they could still get another meal out of it. At one point a car was parked with music blaring, so we started up a little dance party in the park! I had so much fun with all the kids, and it’s been one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done while here.

High #4 – My last yoga night was one of the nicest nights here in Mwanza. The weather was perfect, sky was beautiful, and my yoga as terrible as ever! I loved it!

High #5 – After my last frisbee day on Saturday, we all got together for a little party to learn more about an organization called SAIDI, which is the project of some of our friends here, Jenny and Joey. It was a great night, and it gave me a chance to have proper goodbyes with many of the amazing people I have met here in Mwanza. We eventually made our way out dancing which was also loads of fun.

Low #5 – so much stuff to do…..so little time!

Low # 6 – The wood fundi was not able to finish all the pieces of the kitchen before I left, so I am extremely disappointed about that for a couple of reasons. 1) I really wanted to see this project right until the end, and I’m sure if I had had one or two more days in Mwanza, I could have and 2) Now it is up to the Mama’s and Robert to properly organize the kitchen and all it’s supplies onto the shelves and cupboard. I must say that I am a bit worried. I have no idea how they will utilize all the stuff, and from what I’ve seen, their organizational skills need a bit of work! Robert understands the vision for this new kitchen very well, so hopefully he can get it done properly and then send me the pictures!

High #6 – From what the wood fundi did get done, it is fantastic. The benches are comfortable and easy to clean, and the shelves will be able to hold their cups and containers which used to just be in buckets on the floor. And the mama’s do love the new kitchen so I am thrilled about that. One of the standards that we have established is that the mama’s can only cook yogurt in the kitchen. They used to cook all kinds of meals in the kitchen and I thought that it would be one of the hardest things to make them stop doing, but the other day at the kitchen Mama Joyce was telling me how Mama Sabina told her she wasn’t allowed to cook any other food in there. So I was happy that they actually understand and are following this guideline!

High #7- I got one more chance for a quick visit to Forever Angels, and I did get a bit emotional by the end of it, that it was just easier for me to leave. I’m so going to miss these kids. They are so happy, intelligent and hilarious, but through the website and my friend Meghan (who is at the Baby Home for another whole year) I will keep tabs on these beautiful children. Just last night when some of the volunteers came to have dinner and say goodbye, they brought me a little book of pictures that the kids drew for me. For them to just take the afternoon with the kids to do that means so much to me, especially because I was only at the Baby Home once in a while.

High #7 – Kwa Heri Mama’s! Another emotional goodbye for me was with the mama’s. I’ve had such an amazing time with them here, and they have really been like my family here and in many ways they remind me very much of my family back home! It was just a wonderful afternoon and the things they had to say made me feel so happy to have had this time with them. Phew, so between the Mama’s and Forever Angels, my last day was a bit teary.

High #8 – When people are willing to be up at 6:30am to see you off. My flight from Mwanza to Dar has been switched numerous times and I found out a few days ago that it was now at 8:30am, with a check in time at 7am. One of the other airlines that flies to Dar has recently gone bust, so the other airline is much busier now. Anyways, I really didn’t expect to have any company on the way to the airport. I thought I would just take a random taxi, but Jane, one of the Kivulini taxi drivers, was willing to get up early to take me. Ali, a friend of all the WHE interns was at the apartment bright and early, as was Pendo (PS the peanut butter was made and in luggage!). Mussa joined in on the ride from Paisiansi because he had to drop off a skirt he was making for me. I was also very lucky that Jimmie another Kivulini worker (and as quoted by him, “future president of Tanzania”) was also going to Dar for a couple days. A couple of days means no big luggage, means that he was able to claim one of my bags as his and save me lots of money on my way to Dar! I loved that Jimmie also seemed to know every airport worker from here to Dar. It made going through security easy as well.

So in the end the High’s (which there was more off that I haven’t mentioned) of this last week have definitely overtaken the Lows. I am now in the midst of a 12 hour layover in Dar, so instead of staying at the sketchy airport I am now at a hotel where I got to have my first proper salad in months, sitting by the pool typing this all out.

I will try to post more pictures of these last couple of weeks when I return home (which by the way should be Tuesday evening) for you all to see. Here’s a few to tie you over!

Until then Kwa Heri!

Melissa

the kitchen after some paint and hammer destruction

mixing cement

fixin' the floor

tiles and counters!

tiles done......but looks like the mama's have made a mess already (see the burners....on the ground!)

it's getting there. Burners now on the counter.....just waiting for the furniture

last yoga sunset

maggie being....maggie

lunch with the street kids!

TUNAWEZA!

2008-12-07T18:55:00.005+02:00

It has been a completely crazy few weeks for me in Mwanza. There are a bunch of things that I am trying to finish up and get organized because it will be at least another month after I leave before another WHE intern arrives. That being said, I haven’t had much blog writing time; whenever I make it back to the apartment I have dedicated that time to showering, eating and sleeping! I am writing this now at about 8am while I wait for the Kivulini Finance person to come to work to give me the money I need for the Yogurt Kitchen Renovations.

Oh… I guess I haven’t mentioned the major kitchen overhaul that’s going on right now…..but it’s pretty big. I kind of feel like a designer on ‘Trading Spaces’, but let me tell ya that whole 2 day thing is impossible, especially when you’re in Africa! But I don’t want to delve into all the fabulous details just yet, and rather I’ll wait until it’s all done and give you all a proper summary, pictures and all.

Here’s been some of my goings on for the past little bit:

- Thanksgiving- Part Deux. With the Amercian holiday I was invited to spend the evening with the Forever Angels Volunteers. There’s only one American amoung them right now, but it was a reason to get together, drink some wine, and eat! I went to the Baby Home and helped with the night shift first (ie: helping the staff get the kids to bed), so that was tons of fun. By the time we got out of the baby home and to the volunteer house it was about 8pm, so with some good planning ahead we decided to forgo the actual Thanksgiving food and just have fruit and desserts! Best idea ever. It was a very nice evening, and in regular baby home fashion we were all exhausted by 11pm! I stayed the night in an extra bed at the Baby Home and was up and ready to experience the morning shift at the orphanage, which required me to be there at 6:30am. The home was short staffed the night before with one of the staff at the Hospital with baby Tumaini (who is all better now!), so that made for a chaotic morning, and I guess my extra hands were helpful. The morning routine is just about the same as the night. The kids get bathed and then get nappies, and then are sent to the room for us to get them dressed. However this morning there kids were peeing on the floor, poop was falling out of diapers…it was a mess, but still a lot of fun. Either way, by 8:30am everything calmed down and you wouldn’t have even known the chaos that just occurred!

- Blood Brothers- Just last night I went to see this Musical Production put on by the students and staff at Isamilo International School, and it was phenomenal….makes me wish I could sing……

- I managed to get together a working blender with the help of Pendo, so banana and mango smoothies have been a highlight of my week (made with yogurt mama yogurt of course!). Pendo has been quite entertaining this past week. She had a headache the other day so I gave her some Ibuprofen. Well the next day she came back and asked me for more saying they were “nzuri sana!” (very good!), and wanted me to tell future interns to bring some to Mwanza for her! Another day I had made some tomato soup and told her to have some since I had extra. Well Pendo comes out of the kitchen saying she mixed some peanut butter in with her soup and it was “nzuri sana!”. She then went on to explain that she wanted to make some peanut butter for me to take home as a zawadi (“gift” in Swahili) for my mother. I am not one to refuse Pendo’s peanut butter because it’s fantastic, but she is also planning to make it the day I am leaving which means it may be a carry on item. So here’s my question….would peanut butter be considered a liquid?

- My research project in Nyamwilolelwa has been going great, although nearly ever week at the village it has rained. On one of my bicycle journeys, me and the bike driver managed to go the whole way without having to put our feet down or get off the bike! The children out in the village are very different from those in town. These kids are not used to seeing a mzungu, so throughout most of the interviews they just stare at me with curiosity/apprehension as I speak (through a translator!) to their parents. At the village people speak Sukuma (which is the prominent African tribe that most people are a part of here in Mwanza) and their Swahili is not very developed. So my Swahili knowledge hasn’t been that useful, but I now have started learning some Sukuma. The yogurt mama’s love that I know some words of their tribe language, and find it very funny when I try to use them.

- I have literally been back and forth to Mabatini every day this week, multiple times a day, so I’ve been seeing a lot of things I never really noticed in the previous months when I would go to Mabatini 2-3 times a week. A mwalimu (teacher in Swahili) teaches a group of about 20 young kids every day out of a tiny tiny office on the Mabatini Street. It seems like every time I pass by now all the kids are sitting outside on the ground around him and he is teaching.

- Nearly every time I walk to the kitchen, just before it is in my sight I usually here someone yell out at me “Mama Jaimie!” from a little salon. Next to the salon is a small shop that Mama Cecilia also helps out at, so I often make a pit stop there to see her and Baby Jaimie. So through that I somehow became knows as Mama Jaimie…even though Mama Cecilia is the real Mama Jaimie!

- The dancing rocks is a beautiful cliff in Mwanza that overlooks the city. There are some amazing rock structures and they way they are positioned looks like they are “dancing” with eachother, hence the name. I went to see these rocks with some friends, and even got a little adventurous and climbed some of them!

Me trying to figure out how to make it up the rock!

And I made it.....but had to get rid of the flip flops to do so!

I thought about trying to scale this rock like Hilmar did, but didn't quite trust that I wouldn't slip and fall hundreds of feet!

But should I really have doubted my strength? I mean look at me lifting this huge rock without breaking a sweat! :)

- Big traffic development---- Mwanza now has it's first set of street lights! Apparently they will be turned on soon, but they look very nice and were very much needed. Anyone who has been to Mwanza knows that one of the worst streets to cross is at the area on your way to Kuleana's Pizzeria, so if people actually obey the street lights it will be a major help for traffic and pedestrians.

- On Monday the Mabatini street had tons of energy right from early morning. There was a big dance party going on outside the kitchen at about 8am and I had to fight my through to make it out, only to see Mama Paskwalina and Mama Leah laughing at my struggles! Monday was also World Aids Day, so just up past the kitchen at the two schools a celebration was happening in honor of that. There were some speeches, lots of dancing and tents set up by some organizations to celebrate World Aids Day and to raise awareness about being tested and living with the disease. It was also an opportunity for the mama’s to sell their yogurt and tell more people about it.

The crowd of people right outside the yogurt kitchen making their way to World Aids Day Celebration

Mabatini celebrates World Aids Day

The Kivulini dala dala driving back to the kitchen. The van had music blaring so there were kids running with it......notcie the centered position of the table......

And now see how uncentered the table is.....right before it fell. Thnankfully no one was hurt. Me and Mama Paskwalina's shouts made the kids move away just in time!

TUNAWEZA

Tunaweza is the Kiswahili term for “We Can”. The ‘We Can’ campaign is one that fights to end violence against women and was introduced to Southeast Asia by a man from Bangladesh. This campaign has now made its way to East Africa with it being put in place in Kenya and Tanzania. Kivulini has partnered to take on this campaign in Tanzania and Tuesday they kicked it off with a march around Mwanza and a gathering at Ghandi Hall. It was such an amazing thing to be a part of. There were so many people from different groups in Mwanza and we marched the streets I walk through every day….stopping traffic in the process. The mamas came along and once again were able to sell some yogurt and tell more people about what they do. There was singing and dancing and speeches I think it’s awesome that such a well established campaign has come to East Africa.

I cannot believe Christmas is just around the corner! I have barely even thought about the holiday! Not sure how many blog posts I've got left in me, but expect at least one more about the kitchen makeover soon!

xoxoxo

Just some pictures......

2008-11-28T15:04:00.008+02:00

The rock formations here in Mwanza are unreal, and I'll definitely miss seeing them when I get back home.

I just love the mama's matching kenga's!

My head is not made for balancing things. It took about 5 minutes to get this shot and notice how close mama Leah is to me, just in case the pot fell (which for the record was filled with other things and was quite heavy)

Thursday morning snack at the orphanage is yogurt!

Haji

Pili getting every last lick of maziwa.

Aika

Charlie

Some other Mwanza News:

Mama Shida had her baby! On Monday Mama Shida had a beautiful baby boy. Not too sure about his name. He might be named Osama (after a previous WHE intern), or Bob (after Bob Gough our recent visitor from Canada and member of the WHE steering committee back home), or something entirely different. It'll probably be months before any of us know for sure, because everytime I seriously ask the mama's his name...they give me a different answer followed by a lot of giggling!

_________________________________________________________________

I didn't have a chance to comment about the USA election craziness....but I definitely felt it here in Mwanza. There are already Obama kenga's being sold and just the other day there was a dala dala with a huge sticker of Obama's head plastered across the back window. So basically, Tanzanians were very excited about the outcome, and the week afterwards people would just randomly shout his name at me.

xoxo

It's a small world after all

2008-11-22T19:26:00.004+02:00

Here in Mwanza, whenever you plan something, it is necessary to count on it not happening as originally planned. These past 5 days have really exemplified this fact beautifully. Bob Gough (aka Mr. Bob, Bobu, and Baba Bob) and Ruta Lawerance (aka, Raufa, Brenda and Ruth) are a part of the steering committee for Western Heads East back in London, ON. They both came to Mwanza on Friday to see how things are going, and to help map out the future direction of this project. While this is Ruta’s first time in Mwanza, Bob was here 4 years ago, but returned to a much different city than he saw in 2004.

Bob and Ruta were first in Kenya, visiting the area where a new yogurt kitchen and project has begun, and then came to Tanzania for 5 days of craziness. The week before they came me and Sabrina worked very hard to fit in an coordinate the long list of meetings they wanted to have, but by the end nearly all the appointments were changed in some way, and a few didn’t even get to happen. Despite being so busy, Bob and Ruta’s visit was a lot of fun. When I was telling my friends here that we were having visitors from Canada, they would ask me if the visitors were students, and I would be like “ummm no, they’re ‘older with kids’ kind of people”. And then that got me thinking about the fact that I didn’t really know Bob and Ruta that well, and I didn’t know how “cool” or “chill” (sorry can’t think of any better words!) they’d be. Well I must say that they’re pretty awesome, and I was so happy they were able to visit and see how far this yogurt project has come.

Here are some highlights from their trip:

Forever Angels: For more than a year interns have been visiting the orphanage and the kids receive the yogurt, so we thought it was important for Bob and Ruta to see what a happy and beautiful place it is. The visit was timed very well because Amy was there and got a chance to tell Bob and Ruta about the orphanage, and they were very impressed with everything about it. The kids were wonderful as always. Bob and Mwita hit it off right away, and Davey somehow kept finding his way back to snuggle in Ruta’s arms!

The yogurt kitchen was closed for an afternoon and we brought the mama’s to have a rooftop lunch and meeting to talk about the project and the future. I went to the kitchen to go with the mama’s to the CRS rooftop, but of course they were late! We eventually all piled into a dala dala, made a pit stop at Kuleana’s to pick up the food (funny story about that later!) and then headed to our location. The lunch went wonderfully! We were able to get a good understanding of what the mama’s want for the project in the future, and it is very in tune to what the Western Heads East committee envisions. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon with the mamas.

The Mwanza Charity Ball is held once a year, with all preoceeds going to local charities, groups and NGOs around Mwanza. Tukwamuane was fortunate enough to receive a grant from last year’s ball, so we were very excited to attend. The ball was very nice, and resulted in a very late night followed by a super early morning!

The New kitchen site: The Mama’s have a huge piece of land to build a new yogurt kitchen. While the kitchen in Mabatini is a nice place, it is in no way suitable for the quantity of yogurt the mama’s make, and is not big enough for the future plans of this project. The mama’s have a TASAF grant for cows which will allow them to be their own suppliers of milk for their yogurt. Unfortunately things move slow in Tanzania, and in this case its really slow. It will still be at least a couple of years before the new kitchen is built, but in the mean time, we wanted to go take a look at the land for it. So we all piled into a dala dala to go to the new kitchen site. It is quite far from Mabatini, so there’s a lot of other things that will now need to addressed with regards to transportation, but the land is BIG. There is so much room, and so much potential for this new kitchen and I can tell that the mama’s are excited about it as well.

Monday was full of meetings. We went to SNV, Mtoni Secondary School, the yogurt kitchen and NIMR, but all the visits were very productive. Tuesday was full of the same. We visited Buswelu elementary School and St. Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) which were both very far from the city centre.

It's a small, small world....

At SAUT we met with one of the professors , George, to solidify a stronger relationship with between them and UWO. George brought in some students so they could hear more about WHE and the yogurt project. One of the students looked a bit familiar to me and kept looking at me like he knew me, but I couldn’t really place him….. until he said that he tried the yogurt I had given him and loved it. When we had the rooftop lunch with the mama’s I ordered all the food from Kuleana’s. I am one to always try and score a deal, so I spoke with the manager, Mr. Butiru, about getting a discount because we were ordering so much food. I explained the yogurt project to him and he was nice enough to give us a discount, so I told him I’d bring him some yogurt to try the next day because he had been so helpful. I dropped the yogurt off the next day and left it with a waitress, thinking I’d never see Mr. Butiru again…. but wouldn’t ya know it, he happened to be a student at SAUT in the exact program that was making the connections with UWO and WHE. Okay so you know how stories sometimes sound better when spoken rather then written down? Well this is one of them. It was one of those you had to be there moments. I was quite embarrassed that I didn’t recognize Mr. Butiru and Bob and Ruta were quite confused about why I found it so funny; Mwanza’s a pretty big place, and it was so crazy that I would run into him under completely different circumstances. Let’s just say that I’m glad I had brought him that yogurt like I said I would!

We also had a chance to take Bob and Ruta to the market to get some little souvenirs, and not to brag or anything but my bargaining skills were top notch that day, so much so that I was exhausted afterwards. I spent a good 10 minutes going back and forth with one man about whistles that Bob needed but I won in the end; the first of many negotiations. But my biggest triumph was getting the same man to let me buy two big plates for 16 000 shillings even thought he originally quoted me a price of 50 000 shillings. It was hard work. I would accept defeat many times and begin to turn away but he’d keep calling me back, lowering the price each time. It’s really hard to know what things are worth here because everyone tells you a different price and on top of that they’ll start by quoting us the “wzungu price” which is significantly higher. Basically if a vendor will not give in to a certain price and you’ve done everything you can, than it’s so low that they are not making any profit off of it.

My time here in Mwanza is dwindling down, and the next few weeks will be very busy, but I’ll try to keep up with the posts!

melissa

This is the African Queen, the boat used in a movie with Audrey Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart......guess I'll have to watch it when i get home!

The mama's on their new land

Me with students from Mtoni Secondary School

How do you get rid of hiccups in Tanzania?

2008-11-14T10:30:00.005+02:00

These past few weeks have been very busy, but also very satisfying. I cannot believe I only have about one month left in Mwanza. It feels like I have finally gotten everything figured out and now am in a nice routine, but in one month that’s all going to change again! People keep asking me when I’ll be coming back, but my future is up in the air right now! I know that I’d love to come back to Mwanza, but come May, I have no idea what I’ll be doing, which is a really weird feeling. For so many years it has always been school during the fall/winter and work during the summer, but now I cannot say anything for sure except that I will be back at UWO in January to finish up my undergraduate degree; it’s been about 8 months since I’ve had to sit in a lecture hall, and I can’t exactly that I’m looking forward to it again!

At the “Nutrition by Prescription” program at Shalom some progress was finally made in making the program sustainable by the program participants. It’s a step that probably should have happened weeks ago, but as I have to keep reminding myself “this is Africa” and better late than never. I was extremely happy when at 8am on Tuesday some of the ladies in the program were at the kitchen ready to learn our process of making the breakfast. It was a bit hard to explain everything because of the language barrier, but thankfully Mr. Dishon, another participant and helper, was able to translate some things. It was a very encouraging day, and I’m so happy that this step towards sustainability happened. That has been the problem in the past when organizations come into developing countries like this. Sure it is nice to donate money, but if the money stops coming what is left? In my opinion it’s more important to empower the people and teach them how to make positive and reasonable changes on their own. The hope is that the Nutrition by Prescription program can be completely run just by the participants in the future.

My personal research project has been moving along nicely, and I have been able to visit the village for the research three times now. My project focuses on the water sources in the village and its effect on health and poverty. The project is not too complicated, and just involves me visiting households and doing a questionnaire with them. This project is also part of my 4^th year undergraduate research thesis at UWO, and I am so grateful to the people back home who supported me when I asked if I could do my project in East Africa (Thanks Dr. Trick and Dr. Milligan!). In Mwanza, SNV (Dutch Development Organization) has been extremely helpful in helping me set this project up and another local NGO called TAHEA (Tanzanian Home Economics Association) has been working with me and assisting me in the village.

Sunday mornings, me and Martin (the TAHEA field coordinator) set off to Nyamwilolelwa (yup….looks like I picked the village with the hardest name to say!). It is located far from the city centre all the way past the airport, so it was quite an interesting journey to the actual village. We take a dala dala out to the airport, but then still have about 6 km to go. So to get there we take bikes-- not motor bikes, but actual bicycles. And I don’t really get my own bike, but rather sit on a seat, feet up on little bars coming out from the wheels, and holding on to some tiny handles for 30 minutes while someone else pedaled the bike down the muddy, bumpy roads to the village. I can only imagine what my face looks like as we were riding along, but once I got over the fact that I had no control of the bike, it is kind of a fun way to get to Nyamwilolelwa! The village was quite beautiful and like a separate little world; definitely nothing like central Mwanza. All the households were very welcoming and willing to talk with me, or rather Martin, who was able to translate in the Sukuma village language! At the last household I visited, the participant invited me to stay for dinner, saying that she would kill and skin a chicken just for me! I politely declined, but I really appreciate that they have allowed me into their homes. I came to Mwanza with just an idea of what I wanted to do for this project, but no idea of how I was going to do it, so for the project to actually be out in the field now is very exciting. Kivulini may also do further work in the village, which I think is great because the village could definitely benefit from some Women’s Rights education.

Forever Angels has had a rough couple of weeks. The baby home has had outbreaks of measles and chicken pox, and nearly every child has been affected in some way. It has made for some very sick and cranky children, but hopefully within a few weeks it will all settle down. On Thursday I decided to stay at the orphanage until bedtime to get a taste of all that chaos. The kids are meant to go to bed at 7pm and for the most part the toddlers were quite cooperative. It’s the big babies who cause all the trouble, but they do it with the cutest smiles that it is hard to be mad at them! Adamu, Sammy and Jack were the trouble causers that night and getting them to sleep involved crawling under their mosquito nets, sitting on the floor, and patting their backs until they fell asleep completely….and that took nearly an hour because every time I’d get up to leave, Adamu/Jack would get up again!

That same night a precious girl was brought to the orphanage by Amy and Chloe. Neema is about 19 months old and weighs only a bit more than 6 kilos! Neema is quite sick at the moment with pneumonia, worms and some other ailments. Her mother is mentally ill, and tried to kill Neema which is why she is now at the baby home and Amy suspects that she has been abused as well. It’s very obvious that she needs some good care and love. She’s now been there for less than a week and is still very sick and weak, but is starting to come into her own as well. She was bopping her head to music yesterday, laughing out loud, and interested in all the things in the baby home.

Another Forever Angels Baby had a happy ending yesterday. Amos was finally able to go back home with his mama. Amos was abused by his father who is now in jail. There was an ongoing court case, and because of that the court would not allow him to be with his mother. The case was resolved yesterday, meaning Amos could finally go home! I still remember Amos from my first visit to the orphanage when he crawled over to get a cuddle from me, and I am so happy he is now back home with his mother!

How to get rid of kwi kwi, Tanzania style

In Swahili the hiccups are called kwi kwi. One day at the kitchen mama Cecilia’s baby girl, Jaimie had the kwi kwi. When mama Cecilia saw this she said something about paper to Mama Elizabeth, and then all of a sudden there was a tiny piece of paper stuck on Jaimie’s forehead! They were all very adamant that doing this would get rid of Jaimie’s hiccups, and I tried to convince them of otherwise but then I realized that back home we have our own superstitions that have basically the same credibility (or lack thereof) of this paper on the forehead method! Eventually Jaimie’s kwi kwi did go away, but after about 20 minutes!

View of the airport from Nyamwilolelwa

This gentleman was very busy milking his cows while we were trying to interview him, and had to follow him around his whole compound as he wouldn’t stop moving!

Traditional pit toilet – of those in the village who have toilet facilties, the majority are like this.

A home in Nyamwilolelwa

Escargot anyone?

Baby Jaimie (with hiccup curing paper on her forehead) and Robert

Adamu adorable as ever---but don’t let the cuteness fool you, he’s not so cute when trying to get him to bed!

Jack sneaking in a snooze before lunchtime!

The wheels on the bus go round and round

2008-11-07T12:41:00.000+02:00

Day 5- Monday October 20

In the morning I said goodbye to Jenny and Meghan. They were heading of to Mambasa in Kenya, and then continuing to backpack to Kampala, Uganda and Rwanda. If I had only known the rain that awaited me back in Mwanza, I would have found a way to go change my bus ticket to get to the beautiful beaches of Mambasa. My bus did not leave until the afternoon, so I took the most of the day to just walk around Arusha and explore a bit. I got a chance to go to Shoprite, a huge grocery store, just like the ones back home. Unfortunately, I didn’t really buy much because all I had was one backpack and a 20 hour bus ride to get back to Mwanza, but it was cool to pretend like I was doing real grocery shopping again.

I’ve heard so many horror stories about the buses here, but I chose to ignore them, and make my own judgement about them. It was the easiest and cheapest way to get back home, and I spent a lot of time finding a good bus company to go with. The bus turned out to be fantastic. There was air conditioning and plenty of seat room and even foot rests! The bus route I took went into Kenya to Nairobi and than back to Tanzania to Mwanza, which is what made the trip so long. It was actually to my advantage to go this route, because by leaving the country and coming back in, I was able to renew my Tanzanian visa very easily. Visa renewal is a big annoyance for the WHE interns, and there always seems to be something else that you need to get it done. A single entry visa is only valid for 3 months and if your visa does expire while you are still here there is a very big fee to pay! I was determined not to leave my visa renewal until the last minute, so taking the bus through Kenya was the perfect opportunity to get it done. And thanks to some wonderful people I met on my buses, it all went smoothly. When you get to the Tanzania-Kenya border, you have to get out of the bus and go to the immigration offices on both sides of the border and then get back on the bus. I knew I would have more paperwork than the actual East Africa residents so I went as fast as I could and was very grateful to have met people who helped me with that.

So in the end the bus took about 20 hours to get to Mwanza, which is exactly how long I was told it would take. Unfortunately, I returned to a very rainy week in Mwanza, but it gave me a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep!

There's snow at the equator?

2008-11-07T12:37:00.001+02:00

So I have had two blog posts saved on my computer for the longest time and for some reason haven’t posted them. I was waiting to try and get the pictures from these days from Jenny, but her and her camera are now en route to the UK, so it’ll be a while before I can get the pics to go with the following blog posts.

Day 4: Sunday October 19

Mount Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa, and is the only one of the 7 big summits that can be reached entirely on foot without any climbing equipment. If I had the time and money, I would have loved to climb it, but I must say that I am completely happy with what I did get to see of it.

Kili is located in the city Moshi, which is about an hour away from Arusha. Apparently on a very clear day, you can see the mountain from Arusha, but we had no such luck. My main motivation for going to Arusha, was to find a way to go see Mount Kili, but most companies only do the full treks up the mountain, so I had to do some investigating. Before we left on safari I was able to locate a tour company that did one day trips, but I really didn’t have a chance to confirm anything until the day before we wanted to go, but thankfully, everything worked out.

Our day started off early (like they all seem to do!) and we made our way to the crazy Arusha bus station to find a bus to Moshi. We had no idea where exactly to catch a bus, but no worries, the moment we walked into the bus station parking lot, about 10 different bus operators came at us yelling out destinations and trying to pull us to their bus. We eventually made it to Moshi and someone from the tour company met us at the bus station. We paid our fees, met our guide, Emmanuel, and then left for the mountain. We chose the “budget price”, which meant no private transport, and instead a very long and bumpy dala dala ride. I must say that this was the craziest dala dala I have been on since I have gotten here. They packed so many people in it that the operator could not even close the door. The ride was mostly uphill, and we were bouncing in our seats like we were on a roller coaster!

We finally made it to our destination on the base slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro in the village of Materuni, home of Chagga people. This was actually the village that Emmanuel grew up in, so he knew the area very well, which was good, because we hiked on some very secluded paths. The Chagga people do a lot of farming (lettuce, cabbage, spinach), and do it all by hand. They also care for cattle, but not even close to the capacity that the Maasai people do. A family may have only about 5 animals and they must stay inside a little hut. We saw all kinds of plants and trees, and Emmanuel seemed to know everything about them. I just loved how the trunks of the banana trees were so smooth and felt more like steel rather than bark. It was such a beautiful and pure environment. The little streams of water were so clean and clear that we could see the ground under them. This water was coming from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro; from its melting snowcap. It’s really amazing to see the snow covered cap of Mount Kili while we are so close to the equator; unfortunately the snow is melting fast, and the cap is much smaller than it used to be.

Eventually we made it to Kuringe natural waterfall, which is 78 metres high and stunning. If the water wasn’t so cold we all would have gone for a swim! After the waterfall, we hiked…..a lot…..uphill….it was tiring. We eventually made it to a point where we were looking down on the waterfall, and it was surreal to think we were all the way down there only an hour before. We just kept hiking higher, and higher, with Emmanuel always saying “just 10 more minutes”, as he led the hike while carrying a 20 pound backpack full of food and water and barely breaking a sweat! At our highest point we were nearly 2000 metres above sea level. Despite our exhaustion, our guide said we were actually very good hikers and were going very fast. Eventually we made it to our lunch destination which was actually at Emmanuel’s family’s home.

Tanzania is known for its coffee, and Moshi is one of the places it is produced. On our hike we passed so many coffee plants but the soon-to-be coffee beans look more like cherries when on the plants. Meghan, Jenny and I (all non-coffee drinkers!) were able to make our own coffee from scratch. The process is actually very cool and was a lot of fun to do. We were quite proud of our coffee, and it actually tasted very good. So maybe it’s not that I don’t like coffee, but rather, it needs to be homemade at Mount Kilimanjaro for it to taste good to me! The whole coffee making process is worth a blog post of its own, so stay tuned for that.

After the coffee making, we started our hike back to catch the dala dala, but before leaving Emmanuel took us to try some of the local village brew, Banana Beer. The Swahili name for the beer is “mbege” and the Chagga name for it is “umba” (while Swahili is the national language, villages and tribes also have their own separate language as well). It takes quite a while to make, because the bananas have to ferment for a certain amount of days, and it tasted okay too. The texture was a bit grainy, but other than that, it did taste like beer, and was a nice way to end the day! We took the dala dala back to the Moshi bus station. Most of the ride was downhill, so in an effort to save fuel, our driver didn’t even turn on the vehicle for the first half of the ride! We then caught a bus back to Arusha, sweaty, tired, but very satisfied with the day we had.

Give me my pen!

Our whole day hiking whenever we’d see children they would always say “Give me my pen!” to us. We are definitely used to children asking for stuff all the time, but we couldn’t understand why they were asking for a pen of all things. We eventually figured out why pens were such a hot commodity. While on safari when one of the big groups travelling found out we helped out at an orphanage they went and got a bunch of pens for us to bring back. Apparently the big tour groups tell their customers to bring pens with them on their travels to give to the children they see. So, all the children in the village are used to getting pens when the wzungus come which is why they kept asking us for them.

Arusha Bound

2008-10-30T17:20:00.002+02:00

Day 3: Saturday October 18

Saturday marked the end of our safari. We got up early, packed up all our stuff and were off. Sabrina and Erika went back to Mwanza with our safari vehicle and guides, while Meghan, Jenny and I took a bus to Arusha, another big city in Tanzania. The bus was pretty full for the whole trip, but fortunately Jonathan and Madalla made sure we had tickets and seats to sit in for the whole journey. It was a very scenic ride to Arusha, and I was most excited about getting to see part of the Great Rift Valley on the way. The Great Rift Vally is a geological fault that runs all the way from Syria down to Mozambique. The rift caused the formation of the African Great Lakes, and is very fossil rich. Maybe it’s the science geek in me, but getting to see the Rift Valley was so cool! Later on the bus had to stop for a few minutes while a bunch of police cars drove by along with about 30 SUV’s. I was worried that there was some catastrophe somewhere, but the caravan of cars was just the president (of Tanzania) passing by.

It took us 5 hours to get to Arusha, which is exactly how long we were told. That’s one thing that is reliable here; when you ask how long it will take to get somewhere, you usually get a realistic answer. Arusha is only about 3 hours away from Ngorongoro. Being on a bus makes that trip much longer, but at least they don’t lie about that! All the guidebooks give warnings about the Arusha Bus Station, and rightfully so. It was CRAZY! There were buses, people and taxi drivers everywhere! Fortunately we met a very nice lady on the bus who was able to help us find our way out of the madness, and we walked on to a recommended hostel to stay at called “Backpackers”. The hostel was very close to the bus station and to town, which was very nice. The rooms were super cheap (and we managed to get away with 3 of us in a room only meant for 2), clean, and there were hot showers available! It also had a gorgeous restaurant and lounge on the roof with free internet access; all in all, for $5 a night, I was very impressed.

Aruhsa was quite different form Mwanza. It’s more developed and much more touristy. We went out to explore and we definitely did not get “Wzungued” as much as we do in Mwanza. Our biggest issue was the fact that while Jenny was in a skirt and I was wearing a kenga (a thin fabric material that you wrap around and wear as a skirt), Meghan still had on her capris and for some reason that was a big deal to a lot of the store owners. They kept asking her why she didn’t have on a skirt! I was told that I had a good “kenga but”, and I chose to take that as a compliment and use it to my advantage in my bargaining ventures! Skirts and kengas are definitely the more traditional choice of clothes here, but I also wear pants and capris a lot. The more important issue is to be covered up, so to hear people comment about Meghan’s capris (which went way past her knees!) was odd to me. We all had a good laugh about it though….maybe in Mwanza, the people all think that way too, but just don’t actually say it!

It wasn’t that hard for us to find our way around Arusha. We really didn’t get out to far, but compared to how long it took me to know my way around Mwanza, I was definitely able to grasp the main streets of Arusha very fast. Arusha is home to Mount Meru, which is about 4500 metres tall. It’s not the biggest peak out there, but it was a backdrop to the whole city and was very beautiful.

We found a cute little restaurant for dinner, and then that night pushed the two single beds in our room together to make one giant (and surprisingly very roomy) bed for us. Maybe it was because we had slept in tents the two previous nights, but to us the beds were extremely comfortable!

Here are some more random safari pics:

I just had to get a close up of the croc’s tail. It so beautiful! Madalla was quick to point out that the majority of a crocodile’s weight is in its tail, which made me abandon my desire to get closer!

A Simba (simba = lion is Kiswahili)

Look at the position of these baboon’s hands. So exquisite!

Ngorongoro Day --- Say that 5 times fast!

2008-10-27T18:32:00.010+02:00

Day 2: Friday October 17
Our second day of safari started off very early, with the long ride to Ngorongoro Crater, which was formed from a volcano that exploded and then collapsed millions of years ago. Ngorongoro is about 20km in diameter, has a huge soda lake at its centre and serves as a home to a lot of wildlife. The crater was stunning. We didn’t see too many animals while we were there but I just loved driving around it and seeing the gorgeous environment. One of the rarest animals to see is the rhinoceros and we were lucky to see one from a far distance. There once were hundreds of rhinos in the crater, but as of the year 2000 there are only 17, all which have tracking devices. What I loved about the crater was how some areas were just empty fields, while others were filled with plants and trees. Our campsite was up at the rim of the crater (involving a very steep drive up!), and it was freezing that night. But that didn’t bother me so much, because I was elated that our campsite had a hot shower (my first in two months!)

The highlight of the day for me was going to visit a Maasai Village within Ngorongoro Conservation Area. We were given a traditional Maasai welcome, with song and dance, which was very cool. The Maasai are very distinct in the way they dress, and both men and women wear bright colours, and lot of beads and jewelery, so much so, that most of their ears have been very stretched and deformed. After the welcoming dance we got to learn a bit more about Maasai life. They live as nomads, not staying in the same place for too long. This particular community had only been in their present village for about 3 years. Their huts are made from all natural materials (sticks, plants, cow dung) which are made by the women, and are easy to make and destroy when the village moves. The huts are very small; I couldn’t even stand up straight in them. They have 3 rooms: one bedroom for the parents, one bedroom for the children and one kitchen with a fire pit. Cow hide is used on the floor of the bedrooms to make the sleeping area soft. The diet of the Maasai people consists of milk, meat, and cow blood. The Maasai tend to huge herds of cattle, so throughout our crater trip we would see the Massai boys and men with their herds. But what I found interesting was that this traditional village was also not immune to the modern world. The village gets many visitors and it is their opportunity to make money, and they recognize that. They encouraged us to take pictures, and Maasai jewelry and other keepsakes were always on display for purchase, and the villagers were quite the salespeople! While they do make a lot of their jewelry by hand, the industrial world has also made that easier for them, because they are now able to get supplies and beads brought in from other cities. They get their drinking water from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area park entrance stores as well. But despite all that, they are content in their traditional lifestyle, and it was really great to get to see another side of life in East Africa.

Something to think about…..

The entrance fee for Tanzania residents into the Serengeti is about 2500tsh. That’s only about $2, and much less than the price for us non-residents ($50)! All the beautiful attractions here in Tanzania are not as big of a deal for the locals as they are for people who come from all over the world. Most of the Tanzanian people I know have never even been to the Serengeti, even though it is only hours away. And then there were people who we met throughout the safari who just came to Africa for the purpose of a safari. When these people would discover that we have been living in Mwanza for months, they were all quite surprised; it’s almost as if they forgot that they were in a developing country and not just a place to do some sightseeing.

View of the crater and soda lake before we descended in; And also a herd of Maasai cattle. One Maasai man said that if I would marry him he would give me 20 cows. I'd like to think I'm worth more cattle than that!

How'd we get so close to a Hyena you might ask? The poor thing was sick and lying at the side of the vehicle path (can't quite call it a road!

A very pregnant zebra.

The Maasai huts.

The Maasai Men

The Maasai Women

Can you feel the love tonight?

2008-10-22T16:38:00.003+02:00

I have had such a crazy, fun filled, exhausting 5 days, and there’s so much of it that I want to share with you all. But instead of making one super long blog post with all the details, I’m going to spread it out over a series of posts. There is so much that I learned and discovered over the past week, that I want to give you as much detail as possible and actually reflect on these experiences.

One of the things that frustrates me the most is that I can’t physically bring you all to Mwanza and show you the life I am living here. Back at home, it’s not that hard for my parents to come up to London to visit me, and see where I live, where I go to school, and how I spend my days. But being halfway around the world, my family and friends obviously can’t stop by for a visit, and it saddens me that they cannot see first hand the place that I am so proud to call my home for four months. Does this make any sense to you all? I guess this is the main reason that I have a blog, but some things are just so hard to convey (the good and the bad), and can’t be truly understood unless experienced first hand. This is just something that I think about a lot here, especially as of late. I’ve been more reluctant to whip out my camera recently, because I don’t want to remember experiencing these things from behind a lens, and would rather just enjoy moments for what they are. But on the other hand, pictures are one of the best ways to share these things with you all, so I am trying to strike a good balance of all that.

Day 1: Thursday October 16 - The Serengeti

We left Thursday morning for our 3 day camping safari to Serengeti and Ngorongoro crater bright and early. On this trip were myself, Sabrina, and 3 of the Forever Angels volunteers, Meghan, Jenny and Erica. We had a car full of snacks and two awesome guides, Jonathan and Madalla. Compared to our one day safari, we saw many more animals this time around in the Serengeti. The highlights for me were the elephants, (which were everywhere) seeing a hippo out of water (which rarely happens during the day), as well as a crocodile completely out of the water (credit for that goes to Madalla, who spotted it after we had gotten back into the car, and he made us walk back across the “Indiana Jones” bridge to see it).

One of my favorite things that I saw, was not because of the actual animal, but rather the sheer magnitude of the event that was taking place. The wildebeest is by far not the prettiest animal out there, and it is also not that hard to find in the Serengeti. Right now is their migration time and they migrate from Kenyan border down to the Serengeti where the short rainy season is now beginning. About 2 million wildebeests take part in this migration. They were everywhere around the Serengeti, literally as far as the eye could see, taking up huge stretches of land, with the occasional zebra or impala mingled in. It was amazing, and no picture we took could actually capture how vast the migration was.

A Tanzanian Thanksgiving

2008-10-22T16:25:00.002+02:00

There aren’t any Canadians that we know well in Mwanza—there are a lot of Americans—but alas their Thanksgiving is not until November. However our friend Carlos was nice enough to lend his kitchen to us and we had an almost home-like Thanksgiving feast at CRS with Carlos, another American, Steve, and our friend Hilmar who is from Germany. We had mashed potatoes with gravy (from a can, but it’s better than nothing!), corn, carrots, salad, hot dogs and pumpkin pie. Yes….I said hot dogs, but believe me it wasn’t our first choice. Unless we wanted to buy a live turkey and find someone to kill it, and skin it for us, that meat option was out of the question. Sabrina and I were completely fine to settle with buying chicken from U-Turn (local grocery store) but they closed on Sunday before we could make it there. So as a last resort we turned to the hot dogs, which don’t taste that bad. The pumpkin pie definitely made up for the lack of turkey though. I didn’t have to look that hard to find a pumpkin at the market, and was lucky because I got the last one. The pumpkin wasn’t exactly an orange colour from the outside which worried me a bit, but once I opened it up, it was almost normal looking. I also managed to find all the spices I needed, so by that point I was determined to make the pie work, and thankfully it did; everyone loved it! It was a really nice night and I appreciated that others were willing to share in the holiday with us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-10-08T17:33:00.009+02:00

Pole sana! So sorry for not updating my blog sooner! These past couple weeks have been busy with very random things. I had a lot of computer work that I needed to do, which obviously is no fun when there’s 30 degree weather outside, but the bulk of it is now out of the way! Speaking of weather, I hear it is cooling down back home….let me take this chance to gloat just a little about how hot and beautiful the weather is here!

Alright now that that’s done with, let’s get down to business. On my day safari, I was able to see a lot of animals, but who would’ve thought the treasures that the roof of our apartment could hold? I went up to the roof the other day, and was surprised to find a massive bird (I’m thinking it was a pelican?) perched on the corner. Two thoughts ran through my mind. 1: “Is this the kind of bird that would come at me with wings flapping if I get too close?” and 2: “I need to run down and get my camera before it flies off!” The latter thought was obviously much more important to me, and I was able to snap this lovely picture of it, before I decided not to get too close.

My friend Salome and I went on what I thought was going to be a short walk to one of the coasts of Lake Victoria. Here in Mwanza, the Lake is everywhere you go; it literally surrounds most of the city. Well it wasn’t a short walk, but rather a long hike up many steep hills and rocky roads and I walked it all in flip flops….not a good idea. We ended up at Capri Point, high up on a hill overlooking the Lake, and it was beautiful. My picture taking was not at its best that day though, but I managed to get a couple of blog-worthy shots.

At the highest point of our hike. Trust me, it was high.

Me and Salome: Note that the glistening of my face is not from the sun but rather from sweat and fatigue

The “Mwanza Social Calendar” can get pretty jammed packed sometimes. Carlos, a friend from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) hosted a “heroes and villains” party on the CRS roof the other night. Unfortunately me and Sabrina didn’t get the memo that the party was themed and didn’t have time to put together super awesome costumes, but the night was still a lot of fun. I actually haven’t stayed up as late as I did that night through my whole time in Mwanza.

In sports news, we had a mini tournament at Frisbee last week (but my team lost :() and I went to watch a very hyped up soccer/football game between the teachers at Isamilo School versus all our other Mwanza friends. The game got quite intense, with a fight almost breaking out on the field. I myself got quite invested in the game from the sidelines! For the record, the referee was making some bad calls, and the second half of the game was twice as long as the first half!

This past week Wednesday and Thursday were sort of semi-holidays to mark the end of Ramadan. I took this opportunity to spend lots of time at Forever Angels playing with the kids. Thursday was “Water Day”, so water balloons, a pool, mud pit (!) and water paints were set up outside and we let the preschool kids run wild. Meghan, a Forever Angels volunteer from Michigan, is in charge of the preschool, and really put together a fun day for the kids. Some were hesitant at first but by the end they were all wet and covered with paint and/or mud, including myself!

Omari all muddy and loving it!

Playing in the pool!

Gracie concentrating on painting my face.

Me and Gracie – the final masterpiece

The Water Day was leading up to Friday’s boat trip to a small island. We took a wooden boat that required lots of climbing and maneuvering to get into. Most of the kids needed to be carried on to the boat so that was quite a challenge, but they really enjoyed the trip! There were obviously a few tears, but that was to be expected. When we got to the island we walked to a picnic area to eat lunch and then went on a little hike where we got to see lizards, deer, and monkeys (which ran at one boy, Mwita, and gave him a little fright!). By the boat ride home, it was clear that the kids were tired, but it was a very successful day.

Here are some pictures of the island as we were approaching it:

Me and Michael on the boat

All the kids patiently waiting for their food and water.

Joseph giving me a wonderful smile!

That night we went out to dinner with all the Forever Angels volunteers as it was Jane’s last night here. Most of the dinner I spent listening to Amy’s stories, which were very interesting and animated. Her and her husband Ben started up the orphanage, and have also officially adopted 3 (hopefully soon to be 4) children here and I really enjoyed hearing about how it got started up and some of the roadblocks that they’ve had to face. The baby home is run so well, and the kids are so happy that I sometimes forget that the kids do not have families to care for them. I’d love for you all to check out the Forever Angels website to learn about this wonderful place, and all the beautiful children. http://www.foreverangels.org/

This past week I got a little fed up with my hair and decided to chop a bunch of it off (sorry mom!). It’s so thick, that in this heat it is very hard to manage. I think I did a pretty good job, but I know it’s not completely perfect! Anyways, with my shorter ‘do’ it was the perfect opportunity to go get it braided. After an intense Frisbee game my hair was the perfect amount of greasy to go get it done, so my friend Salome took me to a salon about a minute from my apartment. For a whole 1000 tsh (so less than 1 US dollar), I was able to get these awesome braids. I’m not sure how long they’ll last, but so far I love them!

Mama Asha invited us to her home for lunch the other day, where she lives with all of her family. The place had a lot of character and was decorated with so many random things. The meal was good, although it was basically a fried carbohydrate party. We actually had to insist that she not make any more food, because we already had eaten too much and were so full! Afterwards we went to the yogurt kitchen to pick up some yogurt for friends since we were in the area, and ran into Mama Cecilia and her 3 month old baby, Jaimie (named after a previous WHE intern!), so we obviously stopped to play with her for a bit.

Me and Baby Jaimie

Me with Mama Asha and family

Now for some random pictures:

Maziwa (yogurt) mustache! This is Jasmina, one of the cuties from the Shalom Youth centre

Sammy, a Forever Angels baby, just enjoying playing with the grass

Mama Leah and Mama Asha hard at work in the yogurt kitchen

a rainbow!

Phew! The internet really gave me a hard time when it came to posting this blog, but it is now posted! It may be another while before I make my next post. Next week we will be travelling to Ngorongoro Crater and if all goes well I may venture off to some other cool places!

Happy turkey day to all! Eat a piece of pumpkin pie for me!

xoxoxoxox
melissa

The Circle of Life

2008-09-21T10:44:00.011+02:00

Our home for 12 hours

The Serengeti entrance!

Bald Eagle

She doesn't look too happy!

Me with the lion. Look closely.....she's back there under the tree!

just chillin'

Piggy back ride!!

It's an Indiana Jones bridge! It was a bit shaky, as you can see by my expression!

Elephants! We couldn't get very close to them wich was a bummer, but at least we got to see them!

Hippo's!

A few hours later, we returned to our lion friend.....

....and then woke her up and made her a tiny bit angry!

Giraffe posing for a shot!

Zebra's looking oh so pretty!

Bye bye Serengeti!

One month gone by

2008-09-21T10:31:00.001+02:00

This week we had a guest with us at Mlango Moja. Joanna, a medical student from Quebec was doing a rotation in Dar, and came to stay with us for the week to visit Mwanza. We did our best to take her to some hot spots during the short time she was here, and it was nice to hear about her adventures in Tanzania.

A small project that we are starting is the Twinning Initiative. Mtoni Secondary School is a high school here in Mwanza that we want to partner up with Clarke Road Secondary School, a high school in London, ON. We have already done this project with elementary schools. I met with the headmaster and some teachers this week to brief them on the project and get some information. The school is set at one end of Mabatini, near the yogurt kitchen, surrounded by open field with a backdrop of huge rocks. It’s always weird walking up the path to the school because everyone can see me as I approach and I obviously don’t blend in that well! The staff always know when I’m approaching, from all the students’ whispers! My second meeting with them this week was kind of crazy. I got to the school in the afternoon to find out that they actually thought I would be coming in the morning! This probably would have been a big deal in Canada, but not so much here. Instead, the teachers just dismissed all the classes, and then assembled about 50 students into one of the classrooms just for me to talk to them, something I was not prepared for. We basically held what felt like a press conference, where I talked to the students about the partnership with Clarke Road, and they asked me questions and gave me their ideas. It was exhausting and a bit overwhelming, but very encouraging. They all referred to me as “Madame” and seemed to be very excited about forming this partnership with students in Canada. It was strange to be back in a high school setting. The environment and circumstance may be very different here, but teenagers are definitely similar across the globe!

One of the things that I’ve missed here is working out. The streets of Mwanza aren’t exactly the best places to go out for jogs, and even though we walk around a lot, it’s just not the same. While yoga is a challenge for me, it’s a very different type of physical activity. Thankfully though, I have started going to the weekly Ultimate Frisbee game that is held on Saturday’s at a nearby school. A mix of local friends and international workers play, and while I am not the greatest Frisbee handler in the world, it’s loads of fun. I have always ended up being on the winning team so far, which is always enjoyable, but really, it’s nice to just be able to run around and play an organized sport again.

This week came to a wonderful end when myself, Sabrina, Joanna, and Jane (a volunteer at Forever Angels) went on a one day safari to the Serengeti, which is about 2 hours away from Mwanza. It was planned very last minute, and involved a very early morning, but it was all worth it. The morning started out quite cold (we left close to 6am), so I was thankful to have brought layers, but the day ended up being beautiful. The Serengeti is massive and I have no idea how our driver could even make sense of where he was going. Thanks to a pretty good zoom on my camera I was able to get some decent shots of most of the animals we saw, which I will post separately for you all to enjoy. The park really left me speechless. There were so many beautiful things to see, that I’ll just let the pictures do all the talking.

When it rains, it pours

2008-09-13T18:28:00.015+02:00

This past week has been a week filled with early mornings, rain, no power, and lots of yogurt, uji, and boiled eggs!

I went to church on Sunday with Ruben and our friend Tobias. The Mwanza International Community Church holds an English and Swahili service every week, and it would be the last one that Ruben could attend. The service was definitely not one like I have ever been to. It was kind of like those services you see on tv, where the pastor is so into what he is talking about and so excited about it that he is breaking a sweat! Actually, I’m pretty sure the service was being recorded so that it could be played on cable channel! As an added bonus, every line the pastor said in English was then translated just as fast and with just as much enthusiasm in Swahili by another person, which I was very impressed with. Even though it was not really what I expected, I do have to say that I did like the overall message of the service. You did not have to be a religious person to understand what the pastor was talking about; anyone could relate to the overall meaning. He basically spoke about being diligent in your life; to take initiative and not just do things because you are told to. The message was something that was relevant to a person’s everyday life; something that you could concentrate on now. In general, people here in Tanzania (and I would suspect in most of East Africa) don’t dwell on death and don’t worry about all the details of their future, and concentrate on what they can do now to better their lives. I really respect that mentality even though it may not always be realistic for life back home. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in things that haven’t even happened that we forget about what we should be doing in the present.

Sunday, Ruben decided to throw a party at Kivulini Kitchen as a chance to say goodbye to everyone he knows in Mwanza. He has been here for a year and has definitely left his mark on the city. He pretty much invited everyone he knew here, and I’d say that most of them showed up. We ate some wonderful goat, and there were 3 live music acts, so the night was full of dancing…..until the power went out…..then came back on…..then went back out……then came back on. This kept happening for about 20 minutes before we decided to call it a night.

Kivulini Kitchen before all the people came!

Sophie, me, and Salome

Me and Mussa (purse maker extrodinaire!)

Party!!

This week I was finally able to make some progress on my personal research project that I will be doing here in Mwanza. I connected with an organization called SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation) that has a base here in Mwanza. SNV is an international development organization that works with local community groups, advising and linking them to other resources to support their fight against poverty, and one of their focuses is on water. I literally just visited their Mwanza office with Osama one day and told them a bit about my project and just like that they were willing to help me out with it. Nothing has been finalized yet, but once it is I will post a blog describing it a bit more.

Monday night the power went out for a bit :(

The Nutrition by Prescription Program began at the Shalom Care House this week. This is the program where people with AIDS come every Monday to Friday morning to have a complete breakfast. I made some brief appearances on Monday and Tuesday and then Sabrina and I were there for the rest of the week. Mama Robert (a nurse at Shalom from Canada) and Lawreen (an American who works at the Shalom Youth Centre) are also big parts of the program and all four of us have been preparing all the food this week. Wednesday morning was bit frantic. We got to the care house bright and early to discover we did not get our order of yogurt (maziwa, in Swahili), which was supposed to total 60L. So in an effort to save time I was elected to take a cab to Mabatini, pick up the yogurt from the yogurt kitchen and cab it back to Shalom. I was very proud that I had managed to bargain with the cab driver and only have to pay 7000tsh to go get the yogurt and come back. The difficulty came with having to control 60 L of yogurt by myself in the backseat of the cab, which had to travel along the bumpy and curvy roads. It only managed to spill a little, and thankfully the cab seats were a leather material that was easy to clean! I have now mastered the art of making uji, boiling 50 eggs at a time, and putting together the breakfast plates at record speed. My pouring skills still need to be worked on, but I’m more convinced that it’s because of the ladles that we are using and not my personal capabilities :). The majority of people who come for the breakfast always have smiles on their faces and are grateful for the food, so it makes all the kitchen labour worth it.

People enjoying their delicious breakfast. See those eggs? I made them!

Mama Robert and some program participants drinking their uji

Wednesday was a very rainy day. I had gone to NIMR (National Institute of Medical Research) to help Ruben sort some samples from his and Jaimie’s Research that had to be sent to Canada. Of course the science/research nerd in me loved doing it! Wednesday morning was HOT, but by lunchtime it started pouring and didn’t stop until late afternoon. After taking advantage of NIMR’s (slow) internet connection, there was a small break in the rain and I decided to attempt the walk home. Of course the rain started again soon after. Now I am not one who likes to be out in the rain, but compared to all the locals I passed in the town, the rain was not bothering me as much as it was them! Most people looked quite surprised to see me walking in the rain, with no umbrella or hood, as they waited under roofs for the rain to stop. I was very fortunate though, because Zagaluu happened to drive by and give me a lift home for part of the way.

Thursday was a lot of the same. After saying goodbye to Ruben, who is now back in the Netherlands, me and Sabrina spent the morning at Shalom. The morning looked promising with lots of sun, but then Mother Nature again decided to shower us with lots of rain, and then the power went out for most of the evening.

Friday was rainy again, but in the afternoon, Sabrina, Lawreen and I went to visit Forever Angels, which always brightens up my day! We went with a young mother whose son is cared for at Forever Angels. As a very young mother in her teens with AIDS, she has not been able to take care of her son, but goes to see him at the orphanage whenever she can. She will be entering a different orphanage herself so that she can have a steady home, hopefully get some schooling and eventually be able to take care of her son on her own. It’s very bittersweet. It’s nice to know that Adamo’s mother is there and wants to care for him, but it’s unfortunate that right now they can’t be together all the time.

In general the kids were all a little restless since they had to stay inside all day because of the rain. This visit though, we were there for feeding time which was much fun as you can see from the pictures below.

Yummy pasta!!

All is going well, kids are happily eating.....

Uh Oh! A fight breaks out!

One of the messy eaters!

Everyone kept taking pictures since he was making such a mess. Like any smart child he took advantage of the attention and decided to pose for me!

Friday night we lost power again for pretty much the whole night. So instead of watching a movie as we had planned, I took the opportunity to write my blog for you all on the 2 hours of battery life my laptop gave me. So I guess something good and productive can come from all these power failures….now if I can just find the silver lining to all the rain…….

Kwa Heri,
Melissa

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

2008-09-13T18:14:00.000+02:00

First let me start off by apologizing that I have not posted a blog for a little bit. To make up for it I’ve got two entries for you, pictures and all!

Here are a few of my favorite things that I have come across in Mwanza (in no particular order):

1) Pop Bottles – The old fashioned pop bottles definitely dominate over the cans and there are so many different brands and flavors of . They are much more enjoyable to drink out of !

2) Cow Trade – This isn’t something you can find in Mwanza, but rather a card game Ruben brought from the Netherlands. It involves selling and buying farm animals and to have the greatest value of them at the end. It’s a lot more fun than how I just described it, and once I actually figured out the rules, I realized I was pretty good at it!

3) The Zagaluu’s – Zagaluu owns a little store across the street and also has the coolest cab in town. Zag and Mama Zag have been so welcoming to all the WHE interns, and they’re always our first stop for sodas, water, and phone cards.

4) The fact that boys still like to colour here- Ruben came home one night with about 6 boys from the town. We put in a movie and gave the boys some markers and pictures to colour, and I was amazed at how excited they were about it. I have never seen a group of boys so focused and proud about the pictures they were colouring in; they made me hang each one of them up on the apartment walls. That’s definitely something I don’t see back home anymore.

5) Sleeping under a mosquito net- Okay, so I actually really hate having to drape the mosquito net over my bed every night, and then scramble my way out from it every morning, but I always wanted a canopy when I was younger, and sleeping under it is kind of the same thing, so that part of it I do like :)

6) The flashlight on my phone. It makes so much sense to have a flashlight built into the cell phones, and it really comes in handy during all our power outages.

More to come......

xoxo

Feels like home……

2008-09-02T16:01:00.009+02:00

This past week, I’ve been getting some reminders of home here in Mwanza.

Often when I’m at the Yogurt kitchen, the mama’s will be having conversations in Swahili. I try to follow along, but usually can only make out bits and pieces. I was warned that visits to the kitchen could feel very long when there were huge conversations in Swahili, but I’ve never really felt that way, and I have finally figured out why: When I’m at home and my parents or family are having conversations in Lebanese while I’m around, it feels the exact same way! I can sort of figure out what they’re talking about, but for the most part I’m not really sure what’s being said.

On Sunday Pendo’s son got married. We were all invited to the reception in the evening, which was held outside at the Kivulini Kitchen, on a very nice night. There were two big tables at the front near where the bride and groom were sitting, and then a bunch of sitting areas further back. We were surprised but very appreciative when we realized one of the big tables was meant for us to sit at. African weddings have lots of similar aspects with the weddings at home. Similar to giving kisses on each cheek, here when people joyously greet, they give two hugs, one on each shoulder. There were speeches by the family members, often followed by the loud cheer “wililililililililili”. Naturally, I was very good at that! There was both English (Celine, Enrique, N’Sync, Boys 2 Men, all the wedding classics!) and Swahili music, and it was a lot of fun dancing with all the kids (which is why I didn't get any pictures...sorry!)

On Monday it rained here in Mwanza. It was the first rain since I got here, and it really came down and even thundered a bit. By late afternoon though, it was beautiful outside again, although a little muddy. We went to Tunza beach for yoga in the evening. It was Jenny’s (the instructor) last day in Mwanza, so a lot of the kids that she works came along. We were all a very amusing site; there were close to 20 of us, standing in the back of Jenny’s truck with huge rolls of bamboo mats, travelling along the bumpy roads to the beach. This time I didn’t do any yoga, and opted to take some pictures and just enjoy the nice breeze from Lake Victoria.

Legs crossed, backs are straight, deep breaths......it's Yoga time!

Like me, these guys decided to sit out on the yoga and instead took this super cool picture

Scenery shot! The sun peeking through over Lake Victoria

Twice a week we try to do English Lessons with the Yogurt Mamas. On Wednesday, it was up to me to do a lesson. I told the mamas to be nice since it was my first time, and they were very patient with me and I was actually able to learn some Swahili from them as well. I decided to focus the lesson on telling time in English. I have found that most things with the Kiswahili language are fairly simple, but the way they tell time here is definitely complicated. Where we have just AM and PM to signify the time of day, in Mwanza they use 5 descriptors: dawn (alfajiri), morning (asubuhi), afternoon (mchana), evening (jioni), and night (usiku). As well, their clock starts at 7AM. So 7AM would be represented by “saa moja asubuhi” (in Swahili, moja = 1) and then 8AM would be “saa mbili asubuhi (mbili = 2), and so on. It doesn’t surprise me that this has been one of the harder things for the mama’s to grasp, because I can barely make sense of it myself! That being said, they did very well when we were converting times from Kiswahili to English. For my first lesson, it went well, and it was nice to spend some time with the mama’s.

The Sign outside the yogurt kitchen. They call the yogurt "Fiti" which means health in Swahili.

Me and Mama Ascha

This is a table in our apartment. If you've ever lived there or visited us, you carve your name in. I took the honor and carved my name in on Tuesday....can you find it?

Where has all the Ginger gone?

2008-08-30T17:27:00.005+02:00

One thing that I’ve noticed here in Mwanza is the shortage of Ginger Ale or “Ginger” as many people call it. It is so hard to find. It seems that the stores and restaurants are always out of them, but it’s always what we crave!

Me and Osama at the Yogurt kitchen in Mabatini with some of the Yogurt Mamas

Thursday morning, Osama, Robert and I visited the Mahina community. People in this community with HIV/AIDS have been receiving yogurt from a grant the Yogurt Mama’s received from the Mwanza Charity Ball last year. A report has to be written about the impact of this donation, so we went to interview and take some pictures of the people receiving the yogurt. The interviews all went great; the people have loved getting the yogurt, and in fact want more! Many of them explained how they have felt better since having the yogurt, that their stomach problems have gone away, and some even said that their CD4 counts increased.

The visit really helped put into perspective what such a small thing like getting the yogurt can do for a person. We had more than 10 people all with HIV/AIDS sitting together in one room, letting us talk to them and take their pictures. If I had never met these people and just passed them on the street, I would not have known that any of them had HIV/AIDS. There is definitely a stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS and people who carry the virus, and it is so strong that it can prevent people from getting treatment, or even getting tested for it. I am very appreciative that these people in Mahina were willing to welcome us and share their experiences.

People at Mahina getting their yogurt

In the evening we went to Tunza Beach where yoga is held twice a week. It’s a chance for a lot of the international workers and volunteers in Mwanza along with some local friends to get together. I’m not really a yoga person, but I did attempt it the best I could. It wasn’t pretty, but I am determined to get better as the weeks go on. The beach at Tunza was beautiful and relaxing. We were able to watch a gorgeous sunset, but of course, I forgot to bring my camera with me, so you’re just going to have to take my word for it.

Friday we had a practice run of the Nutrition by Prescription Program. We invited staff from Shalom as well as the kids from the youth centre to come have breakfast. The breakfast consists of one boiled egg, a cup of yogurt, a banana, and a cup of Uji. Uji is a common meal in Tanzania. It is like a porridge that you can drink, but it is jam packed with protein, fiber and other nutrients, and with enough sugar, it doesn’t taste all that bad. The Uji comes dry and needs to be mixed with boiling water, but since none of us had ever made Uji before, it took us a while to get the proportions correct. Needless to say, it wasn’t perfect, but we’ll get it right by opening day.

Thanks everyone for all the well wishes :)

Melissa

Week One

2008-08-28T02:47:00.002+02:00

Hamjambo!

I just noticed that the dates that it says I've posted stuff to my blog are completely wrong! I think I've fixed it though......

It’s been about a week since I got to Mwanza and everything’s been going very well. Mwanza is about the size of London, Ontario, and is quite a busy city. There are always people walking everywhere and anywhere, and slowly I am learning my way around. I feel very relaxed here, and I think that it’s just what I needed after such a busy summer.

It’s a very different feeling to be looked at as a minority on a day to day basis. It’s something I never really experience back home, but nevertheless most people in Mwanza are very welcoming. The children are particularly impressed with themselves when they see us and often yell out “Wuzungu!!!”, which is the term for "white person" in Swahili.

In Tanzania, a lot of emphasis is put on greetings; a proper greeting is a part of good manners and politeness here. There are so many different ways to greet someone and ask them how they are doing, and often times for me, the greeting takes up most of my exchange with someone. In Swahili we use the word “Shikamoo” as a respectful way to say hello to our elders or people of prominent position. In the English language there is no distinct word to signify that, which just shows how important introductions and greeting are taken in Tanzania.

The other WHE interns and I live in an apartment in the Mlango Moja area of Mwanza. Sabrina will be staying here through the fall, Osama is leaving in a week, Ruben goes back to Holland in September, and we just said goodbye to Jamie a few days ago. It’s definitely a transition time in the apartment, but I have managed to get all my stuff unpacked and organized in my room. The apartment has 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, and a balcony that wraps around the perimeter (which is great for drying laundry). We also have a Western styled bathroom and an African styled one, which I have not yet used but will try out soon!

Highlights from the Week:

1) On my first day here, I ended up doing a lot. Me, Osama, Jaime and Pendo (who helps with the cleaning and chores around the apartment), went to the big market, I visited Sekou-Toure Hospital (where Jamie conducted her study), went to Koleona’s for some pizza and pineapple juice (a tradition when new interns arrive), and went to the Yogurt kitchen to visit the mama’s. It was a long day that ended with a good old game of “Spoons”, before I had to give in to the jet lag and get to bed.

2) Pendo decided that we needed to sing a welcoming song for me on my first day. This is what came from that:

Jambo. Jambo dada

Habri gani?

Nzuri sana! (my line)

(2x)

Hakuna Matata (my line)

Karibu Tanzania, Melissa

Asante! (my line)

Which roughly translates to:

Hello, Hello sister

How are you

Very good!

(2x)

I have no problems

Welcome to Tanzania Melissa

Thank You!

3) Chapati! It’s a type of fried bread, similar to pita bread, but a bit thicker and greasier and soooo good. On Friday, Mama Joyce sent her daughters over to our apartment to show us how to make Chapati, and it is definitely even better when it’s homemade. Hopefully I can master it and make it for you all back home.

4) I’ve been helping Sabrina out with her project “Nutrition by Prescription” which is run by the Shalom Care House. Starting in September up until about Christmas, 100 people with HIV/AIDS who do not get enough to eat on a daily basis will receive breakfast from Monday to Friday. It is funded by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), and really addresses a huge factor in the lives of People Living With AIDS (PLWA); that they do not get enough nutritious food to keep themselves and their immune systems strong. My plan is to help with that project 3 days a week while I\m here.

5) Forever Angels Baby HomeHome is an orphanage in Mwanza that is run by people from the UK. Here’s a bit about it:

This Baby Home provides a stable, loving home for up to 40 orphaned and abandoned babies and infants who are severely disadvantaged. It is staffed by trained and dedicated Tanzanian carers and trainees and provides nutrition, love, health care, physical and emotional support until the child is either fostered, adopted or reunited with their family. There are thousands of orphaned and abandoned children in Africa, often due to AIDS. In Tanzania, about 10% of the population carry the HIV virus. As a result of this, many babies and young children lose their mothers while still nursing. Other parents are simply too sick or too poor to care for their children.

Me and Sabrina took the Dala Dala (see below) to Forever Angels on Saturday. All the kids were so adorable and very happy. We got to play with them and put them down for naps. If I could, I would be there everyday! There are a lot of people who come to volunteer at the orphanage for various amounts of time, and from all over the world, so we also got to visit with them.

6) The Dala Dala is sort of like the bus system here in Mwanza, except it uses big vans and can manage to hold up to 20 people at once! Usually we’ll walk or take cabs to get around, but if we’re going somewhere far away, the Dala Dala is the cheapest way. It’s not the smoothest ride, but it gets us where we need to go.

7) I’m a big fan of summer, so I obviously love the weather here; It does get very hot, but not humid, and it cools down enough at night.

8) The “l” sound is not easy for all the locals to pronounce here. So a lot of times my name comes out sounding like “Merrrissa” instead! (emphasis on the rolled ‘r’) I tried to teach Robert, a Kivulini worker, the correct pronunciation, and he got it for about a minute, and then reverted back to the old way.

Kwa Heri,

Melissa (aka Merrrissa)

A few pictures...finally

2008-08-23T13:09:00.000+02:00

This is the extent of my sightseeing in Zurich. I'm thinking those are the Swiss Alps back there?

The view of Mwanza from our apartment

One of the cuties at Forever Angels Baby Home

Nap time! Within a half hour, 6 more babies were lined up next to these two having their morning nap!

Background Info on the Western Heads East Project

2008-08-22T16:48:00.000+02:00

Kivulini Women’s Rights Organisation

A registered non-government organization (NGO) founded in 1999 based in Mwanza, Tanzania. Kivulini’s mission is to work with the community to advocate for women’s rights. Specifically, Kivulini is intensifying its efforts on mobilizing communities to prevent domestic violence. The organization’s vision of creating violence free communities is linked with women’s economic empowerment to reduce dependency and contribute to family income. At the head of this project is our experience that when a woman is aware of her rights in the community and is economically independent she does not only improve her health and socio-economic position, but also allows her to contribute more fully to the development of the community as a whole. Kivulini program efforts are contributing to The National Strategy for Economic Growth and Reduction of Poverty (MKUKUTA). In overall, Kivulini aims to lift women in Mwanza from spiral of poverty, violence and abuse.

For the past 7 years, Kivulini, in collaboration with the University of Western Ontario (UWO) has designed a project on production of dairy cow products (probiotic yogurt) that has started providing a new industry for women in Mwanza while contributing to the general health of children and adults. The Tanzanian National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR – Mwanza), is supporting the project.

Specifically this project aims to:

Continue to work towards developing a program of sustainable production of cow milk and the introduction of yogurt in the local diet.
Promote a community response through awareness and fundraising for supplies
Promote awareness in the UWO community about the conditions in Mwanza and the impact of HIV/AIDS
Developing training resource for expanding the project into other areas.

Tukwamuane Women’s Group
Twelve women (The Yogurt Mama’s) from the Mwanza community formed this group acting as the main producers and recipients of the probiotic yogurt. Since WHE’s inception, they have worked along side UWO student interns to help develop their project further.

August 17 to 18: Mambo from Tanzania!

2008-08-20T11:15:00.000+02:00

After an exhausting day of packing and cleaning out my room in London, I left on the Robert Q Airbus Sunday August 17, and it took me right to my Terminal at the Toronto Airport. My brother met me there and we hung out for a while, he gave me more gadgets to bring with me, we had lunch and then I was off through security.

My overnight flight from Toronto to Zurich was very nice, and made it in a half hour early. I’m one of those people who enjoys plane rides, because it’s a chance to sleep, read, watch movies and just do nothing without feeling bad about it! I made it to Zurich with plenty of time to make my connecting flight, so I thought I might be able to change my ticket to a window seat (I like having a window to look out of!), but had no luck. In the end though I am very happy that I didn’t change my seat, because I was able to meet a wonderful lady named Judith who works for the UN, and was born and raised in Dar Es Salaam. She lives in Geneva now, but was coming home to visit her mother and spend a few weeks with her grown children who were going to be in Dar as well. We had some very nice chats, and she completely understood and appreciated all the worrying my parents have been doing these past weeks!

Getting off the plane in Dar Es Salaam was definitely the most I have felt out of my element. I got my luggage, which made it from Toronto safe and sound (Thank you Aunt Rolla for the flowery luggage, they weren’t the prettiest, but they were very easy to find J) I used the little Swahili I knew to say “Asante” (thank you) to just about everyone, and “Hapana!” (No) to the many cab drivers wanting to take me to where I needed to go.

I'm now writing this post from the Safari Inn Hotel in Dar Es Salaam, which I made it to at around 9:30pm on August 18^th (that’s 2:30pm for all you back home). I would definitely not have made it here without Ali’s (the WHE Project Coordinator) Uncle who lives in Dar Es Salaam. He was kind enough to meet me at the airport, help me exchange some of my money to Tanzanian Shillings (1USD = about 1150TSH) and drive me to my hotel.

In Tanzania, driving is on the left side of the street. Of course, I got confused about which side to get into the car, and it always took me a couple extra seconds to make sense of it whenever we made a turn. Combining that with the lack of stop lights and stop signs here, the drive through Dar Es Salaam was very interesting indeed!

The hotel is nothing extravagant, but is exactly what I need right now. After more than 17 hours of being on a plane, any bed is a welcome sight, and the opportunity to shower is even better! I was also very impressed at how the two workers at the hotel literally threw my heavy luggages over their heads and easily carried them up the 4 flights of stairs to my room.

Tomorrow morning I head back to the airport to catch my smaller flight that will bring me to Mwanza, where Osama (a current WHE intern and a welcome familiar face!) will be waiting for me.

UPDATE:

I’m now in Mwanza and so excited to be here! There is already so much planned for this week, and everyone has been fantastic and welcoming!

Kwa Heri! (Goodbye)

Melissa

And so it begins…………..

2008-08-16T02:46:00.000+02:00

Salamu! (aka “Greetings!” in Swahili)

It has been a very busy few months, but in just 2 days I will be making my way to Tanzania to begin my 4 month internship with Western Heads East!

Tomorrow I’ll be heading to London to pack and finish my trip preparations and then Sunday I’ll be jetting of from Toronto. I have a connection flight in Zurich (cross all your fingers and toes that I make it in time!) to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, where I will then be staying the night before my final flight into Mwanza.

I am nervous/excited for the adventures that await me, and am very grateful to all those who have been helping me prepare for my trip. Big thanks to all my family and friends for their support and love…. I will miss you all!!!

I’ll be updating my blog as much as I can during my time away so that you can all keep up with all my exploits. You can leave me messages on my blog or through email (melissa.raffoul@gmail.com), I’ll try to respond as soon as possible!

I’d like to end with a quote that I’ve read on some of the other WHE Intern blogs, which really sums up everything I’ve been feeling as my departure date nears,

“You get a strange feeling when you are about to leave a place, I told him, like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll miss the person you are now, at this time and place, because you'll never be this way again"
- Azar Nafisi, Reading Lolita in Tehran

Melissa