Tanzania - Wiki Saba

Mama Paskwalina (Tukwamuane's chairperson) and I.

The sun has returned to Mwanza in week seven! I think the weeks of rain served to make me appreciate the blazing heat of sunny days in Mwanza. The week began with a very busy Monday (the 17th)… first, I finished up my blog and composed an English lesson for the mamas at home. Alison and I then walked into town to run a long list of errands – picking up produce from the market, waiting in a long line at the ATM (withdrawing cash is not an easy task in Mwanza!), obtaining bank account information to send home to Canada to facilitate a wire transfer, stopping by the “fast” internet café that we stumbled across in town a couple weeks ago, printing a number of documents that Maimuna requested from us, and picking up prints at the photo centre (for the Mamas, the photo board at Tunza, and bedroom wall collages for ourselves).

We went up to Mabatini to teach the English lesson. The mamas trickled in slowly so we taught and retaught the concepts until we were sure everyone understood. After discussing a couple project-related issues, Alison and I left and rushed to the CRS office in Isamilo where we met Claire and drove to yoga together. After our class, we came back to our apartment for another adventure in the kitchen – this time we made use of the dried seaweed that Alison brought from home and made a huge spread of sushi (yes! sushi in Africa!) using tuna and hot dogs (yes… sushi in Africa…). The sushi actually worked out really well, considering our limitations! We enjoyed our last real ‘girls night’ before Ruben’s arrival - dinner and a movie - and went to bed early.

Alison with our spread of sushi!

On Tuesday (the 18th), I woke up and went down to the internet café to download minutes from the most recent Western Heads East steering committee meeting at Western. Alison and I reviewed them and started planning to accomplish the tasks set out for us by the Canadian contingency of WHE. I went over to Kivulini to meet briefly with Maimuna to pass on messages from home, and to pick up a copy of the Kivulini 5-Year Strategic Plan that I had promised to edit for her. Later, I met with Beatrice on our balcony to work through some of her objectives for her new project (forming a group that will assist disabled members of the community). She’s been communicating with my mom, who teaches children with special needs… it’s always exciting to see how resources can be shared across continents. Once our meetings and work at home was finished, Alison and I went into town to a local travel agency to get quotes for some touristy trips that we’re hoping to take during the next couple of months. We stopped for a very light lunch and a Kiswahili study session to prepare for our afternoon test. From lunch, we dropped by the “fast” internet café in town to send project updates home, and then went on to our Swahili lesson.

After class, we rushed to catch a daladala out to the airport to pick up Ruben, our new roommate! Ruben is a medical student from the Netherlands who is living in Mwanza for approximately 10 months while he conducts a clinical trial with Dr. Butamanya at Sekou Toure Hospital. The study is examining the effect of probiotic treatment on bacterial vaginosis (BV). BV is very prevalent among African women. Women with BV have an increased risk of acquiring HIV, and an increased risk of transmitting the disease during intercourse and childbirth due to increased HIV shedding. Ruben’s study aims to examine whether probiotic treatment can reduce HIV shedding by curing BV, as well as to compare the incidence of diarrhea and the CD4 count between the group receiving probiotic treatment and the placebo group.

We found Ruben at the airport, brought him home (where he was warmly welcomed by locals who remembered him from his month in Mwanza last summer), and took him for dinner at Tilapia to celebrate his arrival and catch him up on the goings-on of the project this summer. I tucked myself in with Maimuna’s 28-page report in hopes of getting it finished by the morning.

We were thrilled to wake up to sun again on Wednesday (the 19th). I spent the early part of the morning finishing Maimuna’s report, while Alison prepared the English lesson. We walked into town with Ruben so that he could purchase a Tanzanian SIM-card for his phone and various supplies for his study. We ate lunch with Beatrice and set off together for the kitchen. It’s always helpful to have her along with us to assist with translating some of the bigger issues to the mamas. We re-addressed the issue of a container deposit system and set up the necessary paperwork to implement it, and then breached the subject of prices changes. We decided that the best option would be to post all of the information (individual size prices, conversions to the price of one litre of yogurt, projected monthly revenue, information about bills etc.) on the blackboard in the kitchen and leave it with the mamas to decide on. We followed up on their TASAF application and other issues such as the salary of the night guard – continuing to stress that decisions surrounding these issues are theirs to make and that sustainability of the project should be at the front of their minds when they make financial decisions.

Beatrice, examining the pricing schemes we provided for the mamas.

We got home from Mabatini and set out immediately with Jodie to walk up Bugando Hill near our house. Jodie was going to meet with the youth group of boys (the “popcorn boys”, who we discovered are actually not responsible for selling the popcorn outside of our apartment!) to discuss the need to prepare a proposal for financial support to submit to the planning committee of the upcoming Mwanza Charity Ball (something we will also be looking into for Tukwamuane). The walk up the hill was exciting for me as I have been really curious to see what life is like amidst the elevated rock formations that surround the city. Unfortunately, I often feel like I see more of the grime on the roads than the scenery as I try my best not to stumble on the uneven ground! It was good to see the progress that these boys are making, interesting to find out about their challenges and inspiring to see their drive to make positive changes in their lives and the lives of others in their community. We came home to cook dinner with Ruben and settle in for the night.

On Thursday (the 20th) I confirmed a noon-time meeting at City Council with Mama Binamungu, who is the city’s expert on SACCOs. I prepared Friday’s English test for the mamas and drafted a couple emails home before Alison and I walked into town to meet Joseph Mlinzi. We were ‘assigned’ to Hussein, the cameraman we hired for the Minister’s visit, who took us to the Nyakahoja Conference Centre where we were to meet Mama Binamungu. We arrived and found that she had already gone back to City Council… hamna shida, nice to get some exercise under the African sun! We had a brief meeting with her where we essentially uncovered the reasons why Tukwamuane currently doesn’t qualify to be registered as a SACCOs (i.e. too few members) but we arranged for a future information meeting to be set up with the mamas. We ran into Ruben on the street, who was very excited after having just purchased a bicycle. We went with him to a small local restaurant serving traditional food that was recommended to him last summer. Alison and I have been anxious to try the smaller food establishments in town but are nervous about eating food that hasn’t been prepared properly. This place was delicious, cheap, and agreed with our stomachs - I’m sure we’ll be back there soon! We hurried to the post office before our Swahili lesson and after went to Tunza from Swahili for yoga, dinner and puppies.

I spent Friday morning (the 21st) with Beatrice, translating amendments to the educational material we are distributing to the community about probiotics. I went down to the internet café briefly to unload a very full inbox onto my USB key to read later – received lots of news, both good and bad… sometimes updates from home remind me of how very far away I am from friends and family (i.e. finding out that I’m missing funerals). That’s all part of the challenge of traveling, though, and I’m lucky to be as connected with home as I can be through the magic of the phone and internet!

Alison and I walked up to Mabatini to review Wednesday’s English lesson and provide the mamas with their weekend test. We picked up the orphanage’s weekly 6-litre order of yogurt and after a few brief instructions from the mamas, set off for home with the tub of yogurt perched on our heads like true African mamas (except we alternated… our necks aren’t that strong yet!).

Shocking the wabongo (Tanzanians) by carrying the yogurt on my head.

We met Claire who managed to get the afternoon off from work to come and join us in Bwiru at Forever Angels. We spent a hot afternoon outside with the toddlers before coming home for a quiet night in. Ruben (with a lot of help from Pendo, our housekeeper) prepared us dinner – ndizi na wali (cooking bananas and rice). Pendo stayed for the meal and regaled us with a symphony of burps. Though we all tried to understand that there was a cultural divide that hadn’t quite been filled, Claire has made it her goal to learn enough Swahili in order to tell Pendo that she doesn’t like the burping. Ruben taught us how to play “Koe-Handel”, a cow-trading card game that he brought from home as a welcome gift. He neglected to tell us all the rules needed to strategically play the game, however, so the three of us lost badly and are determined to redeem ourselves the next time we play. We started watching “Darwin’s Nightmare”, a documentary about the fish and weapons trade in Mwanza. It’s interesting to watch our city on film, but the quality of the documentary wasn’t good enough to keep the attention of our sleepy eyes and we decided to call it a night and finish the movie another time.

Claire, Alison and I hard at work giving Tunza Lodge a facelift!

On Saturday morning (the 23rd), Alison and I met Claire in town to go shopping at the city market. We came home with our purchases and very stripe-y sunburns. We were so excited to finally have a very sunny weekend and thought it best that we capitalize on the weather on the beach at Tunza (pole sana Ruben, who stayed home due to a sore stomach). We stayed there for a BBQ at night and slept on the beach under the stars. We woke up on Sunday morning (the 24th) hoping to go out in the boat with the boys, but the lake was extremely choppy. We decided instead to make ourselves useful by painting a traditional Sukuma tribal design on the front of Tunza’s gatehouse. Shortly after we began, we were called down to the beach to witness a massive funnel cloud that was descending from the skies and traveling towards land on the lake, sweeping up massive amounts of water into its main column. As the cloud started along the corner, we sprinted to Major and Danny’s house (next door to Tunza) so we could view the tornado as it moved into the bay by Bwiru. Thankfully, the cloud started retreating into the sky before it hit land, where it would have caused extensive damage. We spent the rest of the day at Tunza, finishing the gatehouse project and hiking out to the peninsula to watch waves crash against the rocks. We came home and made dinner with Claire before heading to bed.

Watching a tornado blow past the beach at Tunza Lodge.

I’m learning a lot about flexibility on this trip. Most of my preconceptions about the project regarding its functioning, my role as an intern, and the prospects for the future have been turned on their head since I arrived in Tanzania. As someone who measures productivity by the number of daily tasks I can check off as accomplished, I am finding the pace of work in Africa to be very challenging. I am learning to adapt, though, and am realizing that the most important measure of a successful day often lies in your ability to positively interact with others. My parents’ mantra – ‘balance is the key to all things’ – is becoming increasingly poignant in my life as I’m learning more about myself in this new place.

“The proofreader nodded, ‘You see, you cannot draw lines and compartments, and refuse to budge beyond them. Sometimes you have to use your failures as stepping-stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair.’ He paused, considering what he had just said. ‘Yes,’ he repeated. ‘In the end, it’s all a question of balance.’” - Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance

Claire and Mwita playing with masks at Forever Angels.