Tanzania - Wiki Mbili na Wiki Tatu

Over the last three weeks, Alison and I have been given a real sense of “Karibu Tanzania” (welcome) and are starting to feel a bit more settled in here. While it doesn’t quite feel like home, we’ve been encouraged to “Feel at Mwanza” which has been easy to do. This is a beautiful, colourful city and I look forward to discovering more of it over the next several months.

A baboon at the bar (taken on our trip to Kijereshi last week).

Over the last week and a half, project work has been very steady but relatively unremarkable. Our days have been full of trips to the kitchen, NIMR and the bank as we try to strengthen the framework that the project runs on. Our ultimate goal is to give the mamas more independence and ownership in all project-related decisions, and I hope that we’ll be able to achieve it over the next few months once we work through the basic logistics. As a result, you’ll have to forgive me for not providing more detail about project growth – hopefully that will come within the next few weeks. For now, I’ll try and stick to the more ‘interesting’ aspects of my time here.

Last Friday (the 17th) Jackie, Alison and I met with the Mamas at the kitchen to have them vote on new banking and record-keeping procedures. After our meeting, they invited us to join them for an afternoon meal of ugali. Ugali is the staple food of East Africa. It’s made by mixing cornmeal into boiling water until you get a thick, sticky mound of white grain (it kind of resembles mashed potatoes but is much denser). Ugali is generally served with a stew of vegetables and meat or fish. It’s eaten communally – we sat with all the mamas in a circle around the pots – by rolling little balls of ugali in your hand and then dipping them into the stew. It was quite an experience (one that I’m sure we’ll have again and again before we leave) and is good example of how important community is in African culture.

Eating ugali with the mamas.

On our way home from the kitchen, Mama Joyce took us up to her house in Mabatini. She wanted her sons to write a letter to Jackie’s dad (who had visited earlier in the summer) before Jackie left for Canada. Mama Joyce’s house is nearby the kitchen; to reach it you have to navigate a rugged rocky hill (certainly not something I’d want to attempt with aging joints!). Joyce has a huge family – 10 children of her own and a handful of adopted children (orphans from the community). She is HIV+ herself which makes it even more amazing that she can find the energy to provide for her family every day.

On Friday night, we went to Tunza and took along a guest – Beatrice, a volunteer from Kivulini who has been an invaluable asset to us over the last week, providing translation services for us as we work through project details with the mamas. We wanted to thank her for all her help, so we asked her to join us for dinner. Beatrice was born in Mwanza and has overcome a very challenging childhood. She now studies social work in Dar es Salaam and aspires to be an advocate for people with disabilities. She told me that the disabled really don’t have a voice here – “they’re kept inside, people often think it’s witchcraft at work”. I was very impressed with her drive and hope that she finds a very fulfilling way to contribute to her community after she graduates.

On Saturday (the 18th), we accompanied Kim and Jackie to the airport where they flew out to Dar es Salaam (Kim to attend a Hindu wedding with a friend from university, Jackie to start her long trip back to Canada). In the late afternoon, Missy, Alison and I met Danny in Bwiru (a district of Mwanza) and set out on a hike. The hills of Mwanza are dominated by amazing granite formations that you can even see from the plane. The ‘Dancing Rocks’ are located at a plateau atop one of the hills and provide a spectacular view of Bwiru and an inlet of Lake Victoria. We sat on a ledge for a long time taking it all in, and were taken by surprise by a rapidly moving thunderstorm that drenched us as we frantically retraced our steps back down the hill. After drying off and “showering” (using a kettle of boiled water in a bucket… we were way too cold to attempt the regular shower), we headed into downtown Mwanza for a night out.

Alison, Missy and I at Dancing Rocks.

On Sunday (the 19th), we were invited to an Indian BBQ at a farm outside the city. I find it funny that the same crowd of volunteers and the local “elite” (as I’ve come to think of them) show up at all of these events. We were happy to indulge in some well-cooked meat (chicken curry and marinated lamb) and were surprised to find that everything was to be eaten with our hands - we felt like real carnivores. We stopped by Tunza on our way home to visit the seven Labrador retriever puppies that were born the first week that we were here – there’s nothing like snuggling a puppy around a bonfire on a moonlit night! While we were there, I got a great call from a whole pile of the Horgans who were together at a family birthday party… so wonderful to hear everyone’s voices!

Loving one of Chewy’s little puppies.

Monday and Tuesday (the 20th and 21st) were very busy days full of project errands… we were able to accomplish a few things, including getting 2 litres of milk to NIMR to get the probiotic culture production back on track, our first Swahili lesson at the International Language Training Centre (finally! steps towards independence!), a few more trips back and forth to the bank, and an English lesson with the mamas (“I am, He/She is, We are” etc).

On Wednesday (the 22nd) morning, Alison and I walked to NIMR to pick up the probiotic mother culture. We had a very bumpy taxi ride back to the kitchen and realized that we would need to figure out a more effective container system to prevent spills en route. Upon arrival at the kitchen, we chatted with the Mamas for a while about the pricing that they use for their yogurt and realized that their model is backwards – they’re charging relatively less for smaller quantities and more for bigger quantities. They’ve noticed that people in the community are only purchasing the smaller portions of yogurt (because it’s so much cheaper to do so!) and so they’re losing out on a lot of profit. We will try to work with them to restructure this aspect of their business to improve their profit margin. We made another trip to the bank to attempt to complete the account changes and complete a withdrawal – after a long wait and a meeting with the accountant, we were told to come back tomorrow (“kesho, kesho”) for the money. I tried to remain composed as I explained to the accountant my understanding of the concept of banking – I give you my money, and I take it out when I need it – to no avail. We walked back to the kitchen with the Mamas and taught them their afternoon English lesson, followed by a quiet night in catching up on project work.

On Thursday (the 23rd) we made our final trip to the bank, which was finally successful – we were able to withdraw enough money for the mamas to pay off their outstanding bills for June and July. We meandered back to the apartment via the market, where I managed to get a great deal on some fabric ($4.00 CDN for about 3 metres). Alison and I headed off to our Swahili lesson in the afternoon. Our teacher (Gaudence) is great, we’re learning a lot really quickly. Now we just have to force ourselves to practice to cement our new knowledge.

Alison and I spent Friday morning (the 24th) at the apartment working through some pricing proposals while Kim and Missy did errands around town to prepare for next Tuesday’s visit from the Tanzanian Minister of Gender and Children. She’s coming to Mwanza and will be spending a significant amount of time checking out our project – it should be a very interesting day! We had to email some pertinent information home and thought we’d check out an internet café that’s right next door to our apartment… to our pleasant surprise, it was empty, clean, had great music playing, and even had cold drinks for sale! This will certainly make communicating home a lot easier if we can’t manage to get internet to the apartment.

In the afternoon, Alison and I went up to the kitchen to teach an English lesson. We came home and got ready for a witch-themed goodbye party for an American Ph.D. student named Amy at Tunza. Amy is studying urban witchcraft, which she became intrigued about after hearing of the Mwanza witch hunts that are still going on today – groups of young men seeking out and attacking women who have been accused of being practicing witches. Amy has been conducting interviews in the area over the past year and has heard some really interesting accounts of possessions, zombies etc. She is an anthropologist and as such, isn’t so concerned with whether or not the stories are true – instead, she examines the cultural importance of belief.

Yesterday (Saturday the 25th), Jan (the owner of Tunza Lodge) picked us up and took us out on the lake in a boat. We navigated the rocky peninsulas, observed lots of local fishermen working on the shores, and enjoyed close ups of the local wildlife (lots of birds and lizards).

A cloudy-day shot of the beach at Tunza Lodge.

This morning I got an early morning call from all of my friends who are cottaging back home. It was such a treat to hear everyone’s voice and be able to talk to them about my time here! Alison and I spent the afternoon with Beatrice and McZedec (both Kivulini volunteers) translating the English version of a probiotic pamphlet that Missy prepared into Kiswahili so we could send it to Jackie at home to work out the asthetics. The volunteers have been so generous with their time over the last few weeks - they've been lifesavers for us!

It’s nice to be able to take breaks from the project, especially when the work is frustrating and not much is being accomplished despite our efforts. We’re lucky to have found a network of friends in the city to spend time with. I do find it difficult to balance the extremes of this place, sometimes. The excess can be really excessive – I find it very disconcerting to leave the city centre where there is so much poverty and arrive at homes where people are driving golf balls into the sun setting over Lake Victoria (Adam, you would have loved it). I was even embarrassed to take Beatrice out for dinner because I know an $8.00 meal is really far from the local norm. I realize that these differences are just the reality of the area, but I haven’t been able to get my head around it yet. Hopefully my conscience will become more settled with time.

I’ll leave you this week with some general descriptions of life in Mwanza. It’s been strange to get used to feeling like a celebrity when you walk down the street… everywhere we go, we’re regaled with shouts of “mzungu!” (foreigner), or “mchina!” (Chinese) in Alison’s case. Sometimes we can get by with a reply of “Mambo!”; other times we find ourselves with new ‘friends’ (of all ages) who accompany us all the way to our final destination, which we always tell them is “kazi” (work) in hopes that they won’t figure out where we live and start stopping by for regular visits. The city air is full of diesel exhaust, dust, and questionable smells (at times)… I’m sure I’ll be coming home with black lungs! At night and early in the morning, it’s often difficult to stay asleep with the loud noises of the city surrounding us – if you’re lucky enough to be stirred from slumber at 5.00am, you’ll be able to hear the Muslim ‘call to prayer’ that is blasted from loudspeakers around Mwanza (the summer interns affectionately call it the ha-la-las). All in all, this city is a wonderful place to explore… the people are so friendly, there’s a very peaceful rhythm to life, and there is a lot of hope for the prospects of the future.

Though my last two blog posts have covered a week and a half each, I will be now trying to update every week... now that we've figured out a better system for internet access, I think it will be more manageable! Pictures may follow text posts a couple of days later... but I'll do my best to keep sending regular updates home! Thanks for all your emails and messages... it's been great to hear from everyone! Wiki ijayo...!