Tanzania - Wiki Kumi

Finding beauty everywhere in Tanzania.

Alison and I spent Monday morning (the 8^th) working on our laptops at home – me on the Tukwamuane business analysis, and Alison on an application for a grant from the upcoming Mwanza Charity Ball. We ran errands in town in the early afternoon – to the tailor to pick up our dresses and leave them again for alterations, to officially book my safari (!!), and to the internet to send project emails home and do some research online. We found out that the consultant would arrive in Mwanza on Saturday, which was later than originally planned and gave us a few extra days to get work done before our hosting duties started. Over a quick lunch at home, we heard about Ruben’s weekend in the villages surrounding Bunda. His experiences resonated of the classic AIDS-crisis stories – families headed by children or an elderly grandmother, children playing on their parents’ graves, and unimaginable hunger and poverty. After a thunderstorm passed through the area, Ruben and his friend returned to the small home of a woman who didn’t have proper shelter to see how she was faring. They committed to provide her with a new sheet metal roof and commissioned a local man to build it. Ruben found the whole experience to be very overwhelming but eye-opening, giving him a better appreciation of the struggles that so many people in this country have to deal with every day. On Monday afternoon, Alison and I went to Mabatini to teach English and to start organizing the mamas for the upcoming visitors to the kitchen. After yoga, we came home for a quick dinner and worked on reports until bedtime.

I started Tuesday morning (the 9^th) with a hearty breakfast of eggs… eggs in Tanzania often come still covered in feathers from the chicken, as well as unidentified muck, which makes it necessary to really scrub the shells before the egg is cracked. For some reason, the taste is a bit off from Canadian eggs, and the yolk is a much paler yellow… looking forward to being reunited with ‘normal’ eggs when I get back home. I worked on my report for while before going to the internet with Alison to try and send off the charity ball application. We had planned to be there for 15 min and were still trying to send it off an hour later… we decided to move on and try it again another day. After a handful of errands, we stopped for a “Swahili” lunch so that we could finish our homework. The Tanzanian staff at Kuleana Pizzeria got a real kick out of watching us complete our lessons, a handful of them came up with endless excuses to hover around our table to see the wazungu learn Swahili. We walked to the bank being trailed by several street boys yelling “Jackie! Jackie!” after us (I suppose all of us lanky Canadian brunettes look the same, since Jackie has been at home for almost 2 months). Travelled to Swahili lessons via the Maasai market (where they sell beads and handmade jewellery from little stalls) and the internet café (where we were unsuccessful in sending in the Charity Ball application yet again). Ran into a man on the street who found out that we work alongside Kivulini and told us his story: he used to be a street boy and was provided shelter at the Kuleana facility (where funds are directed from the pizzeria), where Maimuna (Kivulini’s Executive Director) was his teacher. He sees her as his mentor and was very proud to tell us that he now works as a painter and lives on his own. We swam laps at the International School pool after class and went back to Claire’s with Ruben for another culinary adventure – this time chili con carne with chocolate chip cookies.

Claire, Alison and Ruben sampling some sugar cane on the way home from the pool.

I woke up early on Wednesday morning (the 10^th) to finish the business analysis report before Alison and I left to town for the day. We walked to NIMR via a new scenic back route, and were able to help a local guy push his huge wheelbarrow of millet flour out of an irrigation ditch, completing our good deed for the day (just joking!). We met with Simon at NIMR (the microbiologist who maintains the probiotic cultures for the yogurt) to discuss glitches that are making the lab work challenging – not having someone present in the lab at all times who is responsible for the probiotics, and minor problems with pick up and delivery. We spent time again at the internet, where I managed to send off the business analysis file but Alison was still unsuccessful with the Charity Ball application. We received advice on how to alter the file to make it more “sendable” for the next attempt. After teaching English in Mabatini in the afternoon, we joined Claire at her boss’ house – Yemane, the director of Catholic Relief Services in Mwanza. Yemane was just back from Dar, where he picked up ingredients for a traditional Ethiopian meal of shiro – a sauce and meat dish that you eat by dipping/rolling with a very foamy sourdough flat bread. The views of Lake Victoria and the city centre from Yemane’s house in Capri Point (the very swanky area of Mwanza) were breathtaking… not a bad place to go home to every night.

We started Thursday (the 11^th) off with a trip to immigration – our volunteer visas are due to expire very soon and so we need to figure out how to renew as soon as possible. As we should have expected, the staff was unhelpful – after giving me about five different answers and five different quotes for the renewal, we decided to follow up with some of our contacts in town to see if there is an easier way of going about renewing. We finally had success in submitting the Charity Ball application – the third time’s the charm! After picking up a pile of supplies for a dinner party we planned to host on the weekend, we were very happy when a Kivulini vehicle spotted us and gave us a lift back to the apartment. Later in the afternoon, we walked to Swahili with 3L yogurt in hand for our customers (from CRS, Amani Girls’ Home, and Maryknoll) who pick up their order at Tunza during our yoga class. From yoga, we went for dinner with Henk, Janine, Claire, Major and Aaron to say goodbye to Aaron who is travelling for a month or so and exhibiting his photography.

Taking a break from chasing after his tire (a favourite past-time in Africa!).

On Friday morning (the 12^th) we prepared and delivered the English test to the mamas, and stayed for chai masala and chapati. We met Mama Paskwalina and walked to Mlango Mmoja to meet with the man who delivers the milk to the kitchen from the Bwiru supplier. As usual, I toted the 6L of yogurt for the orphanage on my head and was pleased to hear Mama Paskwalina shushing surprised Tanzanians by explaining that it’s not a big deal because I’m an African mama and live here. Asante sana, Mama Paskwalina. We took a cab to Illemela first; where we met a woman named Edina who closed her shop down and took us on to Bwiru in her pickup truck to see her cows (Alison and I were initially very confused about where we were headed and who everyone was). We arranged to return to see the cows be milked on Monday morning with the consultant, and walked on to Forever Angels to spend a hot afternoon outside with the children. On Friday evening, we spent a few busy hours in the kitchen preparing for our guests… we hosted some of our friends for a late Thanksgiving celebration, with a Mexican menu of fajitas. It was nice to host for once instead of always being the guests!

Finally meeting the real stars of Western Heads East/Tukwamuane.

Saturday (the 13^th) was a slow day that allowed me to orchestrate some last-minute details for the consultant’s arrival before taking a short trip into town with Claire and Alison to the city market. In the afternoon, Alison and I went to Mabatini to leave final instructions with the mamas before taking the driver to the airport to pick up Ivan le Mintier, a French man who works as a consultant for Nestle, Yoplait, and Danone. Ivan was recently involved in the launch of the first of Danone’s high-social impact communities in Bangladesh. Danone partnered with Grameen Bank (a microcredit initiative founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammed Yunus) to start a micro-factory that provides jobs for the community and produces a low-cost, highly-fortified yogurt product that is targeted to children to improve their nutritional status. The Bangladesh project continues to grow (to learn more about it, Google “Danone Communities” or “Danone, Grameen Bank”), and Ivan has been sent to Africa to find an appropriate site for project #2. As such, Alison and I found ourselves in a unique position with an opportunity to help sell Mwanza as a site for investment and development. Special thanks must go out first to Ellena Andoniou, a former WHE intern who put in countless hours in Canada to orchestrate both Ivan and the faculty’s visit. After picking Ivan up, we dropped him off at the Hotel Tilapia, and stayed for a conversation over tea and onwards to dinner with Maimuna. We stayed after dinner to keep Ivan company for the England/France rugby (World Cup) semi-final… unfortunately for Ivan, the English prevailed.

Alison, Ivan and I on the steps of the community kitchen with some of the yogurt mamas.

On Sunday morning (the 14^th), we picked Ivan up and took him to Mabatini to accompany the mamas to church. Unfortunately, he was having some problems with his vision and so I set off with him on a bit of a wild goose chase to attempt to find a clinic open on the Sunday morning of a holiday weekend (Eid – to celebrate the end of Ramadan). Luckily, we had some success and later returned to Mabatini to catch the end of the mass and have a long conversation with the Mamas in the kitchen, translated by Jimmy from Kivulini. From Mabatini, we stopped in town for a brief meeting over lunch, and drove onwards to the Kimkumaka Agricultural Training Facility. This project was established by an Australian, on land owned by the White Fathers Missionary group. Kimkumaka provides a place for local farmers to learn skills and network with each other. We received a brief tour from a student and then drove on to an abandoned dairy factory at Nyegezi. Both Jimmy and the driver thought they knew the way there, but we were turned around several times because of bad road conditions. We ended up picking up a boy from the side of the road and asked him to direct us. The Land Cruiser barely made it through the roads strewn with boulders and tree trunks… we were happy to find out that this was the back-road and that there was more clear access directly from town. The factory was running for a year and a half in 2003, but closed down without reason or warning, leaving the workers high and dry. One of the workers still lives on the land with his family, cultivating a very small plot of land, receiving a paltry guard’s salary, patiently waiting for the factory’s owner to return with work for him. It was very sad to see what a difficult turn the family’s life had taken because of the irresponsibility of the business owner. After looking at a few grocery stores in town (to check out pricing, merchandising etc) we dropped Ivan off at his hotel for a dinner meeting with a former manager of the Tanzanian Breweries.

Hanging out in the pig-pen at Kimkumaka.

Early on Monday morning (the 15^th), we left with a full car (Jimmy, Ruben, Alison, Ivan and I) to Bwiru to see the cows be milked. Ivan was very interested to know about the availability of milk in the area, the agricultural environment, and the challenges of distribution. From Bwiru, we went to Mabatini to receive a detailed description of the yogurt-making process from the Mamas working in the kitchen. We were then expected at Mwanza Textiles (Mwatex), where we received a full tour of the factory… it was very interesting and educational to see the detailed production of the colourful kangas and kitenges from a pile of raw cotton! Next, we went to SIDO in Nyakato to meet with the Regional Manager. Ivan was able to hear about the extensive success of small entrepreneurs in the area and about SIDO’s strong support of Tukwamuane women. We briefly stopped by Kivulini on our way back into town to pick up some reports from Maimuna before driving on to Tanzania Breweries by the lake. Again, we received a full tour of the plant from the director. Alison and I were remarking at how lucky we felt to have experienced so much in such a short period of time. We were happy to stop at home for a rest before heading back to Tilapia to review Tukwamuane’s business analysis with Ivan, and to receive advice about how to move forward with the project. We dropped him off at Isamilo Lodge for a dinner meeting with Chairman Batenga of the Mwanza Chamber of Commerce, and then went for a relaxing drink with Claire to talk about all the excitement we’d had over the last three days.

Checking out the first stages of beer-making at Tanzania Breweries.

Week 10 was certainly a very exciting one, and it gave us a great opportunity to learn more about what it takes to implement development projects. As Julius Nyerere (the first president of Tanzania) said, “You can’t address poverty without addressing the poor”. There are many considerations that must be made when undertaking a project in a developing country, but it is important to remember that it is often the simplest solutions that can have the biggest impact.

This coming week, we host faculty, staff and students from the University of Western Ontario. We look forward to discussing the project’s progress with them and hope to come to a better understanding of what needs to be done to improve the women’s business. I’m very excited to report that I will be leaving Mwanza on Saturday morning with one of the UWO staff, Mr. Douglas Keddy, to embark on a 3-day camping safari to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. I will return on Monday evening (the 22^nd) and look forward to sharing my adventure with everyone at home. Tutaonana (talk to you later)!