Tanzania – Wiki Kumi na Sita

Two sisters in rural Mwanza.

I spent a typical Monday morning (the 19th) working at my laptop and having a couple brief meetings with members of the Kivulini staff. After a couple hours of project work, Alison and I headed out to town to run our routine Monday errands before going to City Council for a 2pm meeting with Mr. Thomas Tukay, the City Urban Planning Officer. We patiently waited outside his office for about 45 minutes before he showed up, and had a brief discussion outlining our desire to obtain a new plot of land for the mamas before he took us to meet the City Director to present our case to him. After awkwardly explaining ourselves in front of a room of City Councillors, we were told to wait outside for a few minutes before Tukay would join us and travel to Mabatini to survey the mamas’ present site. We took our seats in the lobby and watched as the minutes & hours ticked by… finally, at 5pm, Tukay emerged from the office and was ready to go. I was incredulous that he didn’t seem to think it that out of the ordinary to make guests wait for 3 hours for a meeting… AWA (again and again!).

Entertaining ourselves with the self-timer camera feature while waiting at City Council.

We drove to the community kitchen, where Tukay introduced himself to the mamas and heard of their desire to own a piece of land rather than use a plot allocated to them but controlled by City Council. With that in mind, Tukay took Alison, Mama Paskwalina and I for a drive about 6-7km out of town to see a new area of development in Nyamongoro. Mwanza is growing at a very rapid pace (the fastest growing city in East Africa!) and it is not hard to imagine that the Nyamongoro area will be bustling in a few short years. For now, it is an interesting area to consider which may accommodate the mamas’ growing needs. After saying goodbye to Tukay, we returned to Mabatini to teach English and talk with the mamas before walking back through the beginnings of the night market to our apartment (as quickly as possible, trying to get home before the sun disappeared completely). We went to Jenny’s house in Pasiansi for dinner – her friend Matt (here to visit from the US) cooked a massive meal which we enjoyed watching a movie projected onto their living room wall.

After showering on Tuesday morning (the 20th), I realized that the strange burning smell I had been noticing was coming from my hair – no more ironing… beauty is pain! Alison and I busied ourselves around the apartment making calls to arrange and reschedule meetings and running back and forth from Kivulini to wrap up some loose ends. We set off to town to re-activate Alison’s cell phone and grab a quick lunch before doing a huge grocery shop in town. We were happy to see that the mamas’ yogurt is being sold at Lavena Supermarket (one of the biggest grocery stores in town) for 2000 Tsh/litre… very exciting in terms of sales and distribution! After dropping the food off at home, we went back into the city so that Alison could meet Manuela in order to book their Christmastime safari together. I spent an hour reading research papers at the pizzeria over a milky chai… reminiscent of endless days studying in the library at UWO (slightly different due to the tropical climate here). I met the girls at Swahili class & afterwards enjoyed our customary Tuesday evening of swimming and dinner at Claire’s.

On Wednesday morning (the 21st) I prepared an English lesson for the mamas and typed up a copy of Kivulini’s lease to give to Ruben so that he may use it to negotiate with the landlord (I discovered that she is trying to charge us WAY more than Kivulini pays for essentially the same space… unsurprising but still unfair). Alison called Mr. Ngowi, Mwanza’s TASAF (the Tanzania Social Action Fund) coordinator, and we rushed out to meet him after hearing that he was in the office. We first picked up Mama Paskwalina from Mabatini and then drove into the city. Mr. Ngowi was very happy to see us and was glad to receive the group’s TASAF application from Mama Paskwalina (the street leader finally relented and helped them to organize the community meeting required for its completion). Though we had been expected a few weeks earlier, we were happy to hear that we were not too late to be considered for the grant. We were blown away when Mr. Ngowi showed us the extremely detailed three-page budget that he had prepared for us, along with a month-by-month action plan for the project’s implementation, and even a sketch of a ‘banda’ (cow shed) that they intend to construct. The budget missed nothing – it allows for the purchase of four pregnant cows and one bull, all the costs and purchases associated with building a shed, a year’s supply of grass for the cows, a bicycle, medication for the animals, training (the most important component, in my mind – allowing the mamas to choose what they want to be trained in), etc… totalling almost 9 million Tsh (about 7500 CDN) Mr. Ngowi assured us that the application has a very good chance of going through and sent us on our way with further instructions of tasks to be completed. We drove up to Mabatini with an agricultural surveyor who was to assess a potential piece of land where the banda may be built. Unfortunately, he found the space to be too small and too close to family homes. Nevertheless, we were very excited to hear of the potential for support from the Tanzanian government – a very important step towards sustainability.

We returned home and split up – Alison to Nyakato with Omari (from Kivulini) and Mama Paskwalina to meet with an architect to look at designs for a new kitchen, and me to the internet café to send a very exciting update email home and to check for a quote from Tukay for the Nyamongoro site. We had planned to meet our friend Tini in town at 3pm to travel back to Mabatini with representatives from the German Embassy in Dar es Salaam – another opportunity to apply for a grant to support the project’s growth – but found out that the Germans’ plane had been delayed. We ran some errands in town to kill time before meeting with Tini at 5.45pm to show off Tukwamuane’s project to the embassy representatives. They stayed for only a short visit, as they were scheduled to see a couple other projects in Mwanza, but they were very positive about the project and encouraged us to apply for support from them. After a very tiring and productive day, Alison and I went to Kivulini Kitchen (a restaurant in Isamilo) to say goodbye & happy birthday to Ray (Claire’s boss at Catholic Relief Services) as he departs Mwanza for the USA.

We left home on Thursday morning (the 22nd), met Mama Paskwalina at the bottom of the Mabatini hill and grabbed a dala-dala to Nyakato where we walked to the Roman Catholic parish where Nico (Isaac’s friend) is the pastor. Before we left, we saw the AIDS Outreach Centre affiliated with the parish and met some of the staff who work there – they offer mostly counselling and educational support for the community. Together, we left to Mahina to attend their weekly community meeting and pick up the CD4 counts of the members who had agreed to help us with project research. We waited for quite some time for the meeting to begin before they informed us that they didn’t have the numbers ready. I realize that I have become cynical when it comes to promises of productivity in Tanzania, so I wasn’t surprised that nothing had been prepared. Instead, we provided them with a template for the data and gave them our phone numbers to call for pick-up when the information is ready. After meeting in Mahina, Alison and I walked through Nyakato to Heifer International for our rescheduled meeting with Dr. Sokombi. Our discussion was very interesting, allowing us to come to a better understanding of both the challenges presented to NGOs by the changing face of HIV/AIDS and the current state of the dairy industry in Mwanza – a bit strange to focus on these two issues side-by-side. From Nyakato, we took a dala-dala back to Mabatini for chai and yogurt purchasing and then returned home. In the afternoon, we went into town (no chance to get online due to power cuts) and walked to NIMR to meet with Mr. Temu, the chairman of the microbiology department. Unfortunately, what we thought would be a useful discussion about the production and access of probiotic milk actually was just a chance for him to reschedule the meeting to the following week. We trudged back to town under the blazing midday sun for Swahili and then drove to Tunza for a very relaxing yoga class – desperately necessary in the middle of an extremely hectic week! Alison and I returned home after yoga for dinner and a movie… we were exhausted both mentally and physically.

New yoga pictures from a couple weeks ago, courtesy of Tini's camera.

On Friday morning (the 23rd) I pulled together some final thoughts for a research paper proposal to send home to Canada while Alison prepared an English test for the mamas. We met with Maimuna to follow up on several issues and to inform her of the week’s progress. I ran down to the internet after our meeting to work through my inbox, and then walked to Mabatini with Alison. We had chai with the mamas before leaving to the orphanage in Bwiru. En route, we stopped by the Wilson home to pick up the containers we used to give the yogurt to Charity Ball. We spoke to Ian, Andie’s husband, a dentist who manages an NGO called Bridge2Aid, which trains rural practitioners and provides funds to vulnerable rural communities. We heard from him that the ball raised 27 million Tsh… an improvement over last year’s 21 million Tsh and much more than they had anticipated. We spent a pleasant afternoon at the orphanage before returning home to the internet and a trip to Nyakato for kitchen sketches (the mid-week trip was unsuccessful). On Friday evening, we went to Jenny’s again for dinner and a movie with her parents who are in town for a pre-Christmas visit.

Bahati, one of my favourite little munchkins at the orphanage.

Yunisi, looking beautiful in her kitenge.

On Saturday morning (the 24th), I left with Claire, Tini, Major and Ross to Kijereshi for a camping trip. Alison was feeling under the weather and thought it best to stay home for the weekend and recuperate. With all the recent rainstorms, this was probably a wise decision! We drove 45 minutes out of town before the car broke down, forcing us to enjoy our novels under the shade of acacia trees as we waited for a mechanic to arrive. We were joined by dozens of local children who were content to watch us from a distance and were happier still when we brought out our digital cameras and started coming up with games to play together (hopscotch, hat-tossing etc). We managed to get the car repaired and set off again for the campsite. After turning off the main road, we started approaching a menacing storm that painted the sky a deep blue. Eventually we found ourselves in the thick of it, so Tini, Ross and I thought it would be a good idea to run around in it to get the full experience of a Serengeti storm. The rain stung like hail and we were sopping wet within a matter of seconds, but it was worth it. We spent the afternoon drying off in the Kijereshi Lodge before venturing out to our campsite. The open banda where we had planned to sleep was full of puddles and after we still hadn’t produced a good fire with half a box of matches, we decided to opt for Plan B – sleeping in a “family unit” room and ordering dinner from the kitchen. Not exactly the most rugged camping experience, but a reasonable alternative in the height of the rainy season!

Playing a "toss-the-hat" game with Ross and some local children.

We spent Sunday morning (the 25th) reading around the pool, returning back to our room to prep the lunch while the boys headed out to make a new fire at the campsite. When we hadn’t heard from them two hours later, Tini, Claire and I decided to take action ourselves and built a fire on the doorstep of our room. This was probably not ‘safi’ (cool) with the hotel staff, but we produced a delicious pasta and sauce and were very proud of ourselves. Hours later, we heard a few shotguns fire and the boys rolled back to the room, covered from head to toe in mud and carrying their trophy guinea fowl. They had found themselves stuck in the mud after venturing “off-road” and had spent hours getting going again. We enjoyed our meal and the fresh kill from the plains before driving back to Mwanza in the middle of another massive thunderstorm.

Claire and Tini, working hard to prepare our meal on an open fire, steps away from our room.

With three weeks left in Mwanza and so much on the go pertaining to the project, I feel as though these weeks will continue to be frenzied with activity as we wrap up our efforts. It’s a great feeling to be ending our internship on such a positive note, with so much potential for the future growth of the project.

Tanzania – Wiki Kumi na Tano

Mama Paskwalina filling a big yogurt order at the kitchen.

I spent the morning of Monday the 12th working on my laptop in the apartment – prepping my blog, finishing my editing of Jodie’s report (all 49 pages!), and organizing some information gleaned from the mamas pertaining to the Tukwamuane balance sheet. I went over to Kivulini briefly to speak with Maimuna, and was introduced to an American woman and a Canadian man who are in Mwanza representing a North American foundation. They expressed interest in finding an appropriate group or project to support financially, so I took the opportunity to tell them about the work that the Tukwamuane women are doing. The Kivulini staff offered to bring them to see the kitchen, and they promised to keep in touch with me. In the afternoon, Alison and I ventured to town to run errands – we had a very successful internet session, went to the bank and the post office, and bumped into some volunteers from the baby home for lunch. We hurried back to Mlango Mmoja before travelling up to Mabatini to teach English. We got suckered into staying for rice and beans with the mamas (again!)… we need to start coming up with more creative excuses if we want to avoid having to eat huge portions of starchy food every afternoon! After eating, we came back to Mlango Mmoja with Mamas Cesilia and Asha to start lesson one of Email 101. They were very fast learners, although we had to start from the very beginning (i.e. this is a mouse, this is how you use the mouse). I came home to two exciting postal packages (thank you to everyone who has been sending mail… it’s the best pick-me-up when it arrives!), and Alison and I were very happy to spend our evening indulging in watching the new Sex and the City DVDs sent from Canada.

On Tuesday morning (the 13th), Alison and I did work while waiting for a meeting with Maimuna to discuss several issues. The wait ended up being a lot longer than we expected, so we kept productivity at a high, doing laundry and getting organized for our December travels (Alison – around Tanzania, me – home!). Finally, Maimuna was available and we had a very productive meeting, receiving advice on a number of issues – Mercy’s disappearance (we’re getting Kivulini Legal Aid to try and track her down), allocating donations to the Tuelimishane Youth Group, getting in touch with our landlord to negotiate next year’s lease, requesting mediation services between Tukwamuane and the street leadership, training resources in Mwanza, contacts with Heifer International (to get information about the dairy industry in Mwanza for the Danone consultant), improving communication between WHE interns and Kivulini staff, etc. etc. We later met with Mama Yusta of Legal Aid to follow up on some issues, before heading into town for the afternoon. We arrived at the Regional Commissioner’s office and waited for a while before meeting with Mr. Kiamba, Mwanza’s Principal Planning Officer. We had intended to speak with him about registering Tukwamuane’s business name, but it turns out that he’s the man responsible for registering NGOs. Lucky for us, that’s another procedure that we need to start working on, so we talked it through and will hopefully set that process into motion over the next few weeks. After our meeting, we grabbed a quick lunch and spent a short while online before heading to Swahili class. Later, we swam laps at the pool and returned to Claire’s before meeting Major (& his family), Ross, Papae and some of the Indian boys at the Mwanza Yacht Club for a curry cookout next to the lake.

My favourite sight in Mwanza - "paper birds" (egrets) flying against the hillside homes.

I spent Wednesday morning (the 14th) preparing an English lesson and compiling a list of WHE email addresses for the mamas, so that they are able to communicate with Canada if they wish to. We finally had success in reformatting the ‘new’ educational brochure (as per the faculty’s recommendations), but were out of luck when we attempted to meet with both Maimuna and Mama Yusta. We set off into town to use the internet, and so that Alison could spend some time at the travel agency. I came home alone for a quick bite to eat before running photocopies of the English lessons and the brochures. Alison and I met up again to travel to Nyakato to meet with Dr. Sokombi of Heifer International, in hopes that he might be able to provide us with information about the structure of the Mwanza dairy industry, which we could later pass on to Ivan. We were dropped off at Heifer, and I called Dr. Sokombi to let him know we had arrived. Guiltily, he told me that he was still on the road and asked if we could wait for 1 ½ hours for him to arrive. We decided it would be best to reschedule the meeting and grabbed a dala-dala back to Mabatini. We taught an English lesson and spent a long time chatting with the mamas (with some translation through Asha’s cousin). Fortunately, we managed to sneak away before the inevitable rice and bean afternoon meal. We waited at home until Cesilia and Asha showed up, and went to the internet with again to practice their new emailing skills. Afterwards, Alison and I ran to the tailor to pick up my Charity Ball dress, had dinner with Ruben (with mid-meal visits from Claire, Basi from Tuelimishane, and Jondwa, Ruben’s tailor friend), watched a movie and went to bed early.

On Thursday morning (the 15th), we met with Maimuna and Omari from Kivulini to follow up on a number of issues, and I attempted to get in touch with Dr. Changalucha for our scheduled follow-up meeting, to no avail. We waited around for the landlord to show up, and were able to confirm that the apartment will be available for rent next year (which is great news – first of all, because it’s a great location for interns to work out of, and second of all – Alison and I were not looking forward to apartment hunting during our last weeks here!). We headed into town so that Alison could do some more banking/travel agency errands, and so that I could spend time online researching for a potential paper to submit for publishing upon my return home. I finally decided to count my losses and purchased a new USB key at the internet café (mine mysteriously went missing last Friday)… it’s a very important tool to have when you’re doing work on a new computer every day! I met with Alison for a quick bite to eat before walking with her to Precision Air to have some of her flights changed, and on to the bank where we had no success in withdrawing funds. We hurried to our Swahili lessons, picked up the “wazungu” yogurt order from home, and drove to Tunza for our yoga class. We had dinner with some of the International School teachers, and heard about an opportunity for us to apply for a grant for the project from the German embassy in Dar es Salaam… lots of possibilities for us to pursue in our last month here!

Grace, enjoying a snack of yogurt at Forever Angels.

I woke up on Friday morning (the 16th) and prepared the day’s English test before we set off to Mabatini. We were picked up on the way by a German man who is managing the road construction there… we see him every time we go to the kitchen and he never fails to salute us and wish us good luck with our work. Once we got to Mabatini, we bought several new plastic containers for the yogurt to accommodate our big orders. We gave the mamas the English test, enjoyed chai and chapati for breakfast, and set off to town with 20L of yogurt – 14L for Charity Ball, to be served alongside the curry (our ‘donation’ to the cause), and 6L for the orphanage. We use the same taxi driver to take us to Bwiru every week, and when we got in the car, he presented me with my missing USB key – I suppose it had fallen out of my bag the week before… extremely kind of him to save it for me! We dropped off the Charity Ball order and went to City Council for our 11am meeting with Joseph Mlinzi. While we waited, he sent me a text message requesting that we reschedule for 3pm as he was out of office. Alison and I had had quite enough of waiting and rescheduling, so we talked our way into the Mayor’s office to speak with him about his promise to assist the mamas in obtaining a new plot of land. He immediately got us in touch with the City Planning Officer, Mr. Tukay, who booked a follow-up meeting with us for next Monday afternoon… we will travel with him to Mabatini so he can see the facility that the mamas are currently working out of, and then take us to some new potential plots. From City Council, we went to Forever Angels. The baby home was very crowded as they are conducting interviews for new staff – with new children arriving all the time and some in the hospital in poor health, they are desperate for extra hands. Though I have been mostly been posting pictures of chubby toddlers, it’s important for me to remind you that this baby home also cares for some very sick babies. One tiny little boy, Adamo, was brought to FA last week because his 14-year-old mother is now in the last throes of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. He’s extremely malnourished and needs to get growing over the next few weeks to maintain his health. After cuddling the little ones through a huge thunderstorm, we came home for a quiet night in – dinner with Ruben and Tobias (stuffed peppers… we are determined to continue our culinary creativity!) and a movie.

A raging thunderstorm woke me up early on Saturday morning (the 17th)… the rainy season has definitely arrived, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Storms arrive and move on quite quickly, and it seems to rain most frequently at night or in the early morning. No flooding yet (knock wood!), and our mobility around town (on foot!) hasn’t been hindered too much so far. We spent a slow morning primping (painting nails, ironing hair… yes, with a real iron) and then met Claire in town to run some casual errands and to have lunch together. She came back to our house and we got dressed together before setting off with Ruben to the Bank of Tanzania Institute for the Grand Charity Ball. We all took turns volunteering to sell raffle tickets during the evening, enjoyed watching the ‘high rollers’ participate in a live auction (for items such as a piece of unfinished Tanzanite, bars of gold and silver – donated by the mining companies, flights around Tanzania etc… a little out of range for those of us with no income!), and watched presentations of where the grants went from last year’s event. It was a really lovely evening – nice to see that all the volunteers and NGO workers can clean up a bit, and great to celebrate together for a good cause.

Alison, Ruben, Claire and I on the roof of our apartment, pre-ball.

Tini, Matt, me, Claire, Alison, Manuela, Ruben, Lawreen, Lauren, Lindsay, Jenny and Carlos.

Alison and I were picked up on Sunday morning (the 18th) by Mama Asha’s sister, who walked with us to Asha’s house in Mabatini. We met her family and sat in the living room with her as she showed us her photo albums and her ‘guest book’ (with messages written by several former WHE interns), with a kung-fu video playing in the background on the television (??). We enjoyed tea and breakfast with her, and chatted for a while before trying to duck out and return home. Much to our surprise, she and her sister pulled out some black kohl makeup and immediately started drawing Alison’s eyebrows on. They rubbed my eyebrows to see if I already had makeup on them, confirmed that I didn’t, and drew mine on as well. Another sister started painting our nails, while another braided my hair. We were a bit bewildered, unsure why we were suddenly participating in a spa day, but thanked them for their efforts and started our walk home with bushy black eyebrows. I spent a bit of time online (with black eyebrows still intact) before we grabbed a taxi to go to Tunza to spend time with the birthday boy, Ross. As we were driving along Airport Road, a young boy ran out in front of our vehicle and we struck him. It was really terrible… he flew through the air and hit the road, and I thought for sure that we’d be administering first aid to a very serious case. I scanned his limbs to see if there were any breaks, but he seemed to get away with only a tiny bump on his head. We took him in the taxi to the hospital to get him checked out, and then went on to Tunza. Alison and I were both very shaken up, but were very relieved that the boy was okay. We spent the evening playing cards with Ross (Po-ke-no), and having a celebratory group dinner with a wild thunderstorm outside.

At Asha's house with members of her family.

Alison being "beautified" at Asha's house.

I have been desperate to cement the unique details of Mwanza in my mind as I approach my departure. I see the town in snapshots: the night market at the Pasiansi taxi stand, with glowing candles lighting up pineapples, piles of oranges, and other produce; the female civil servants whose job is to sweep the same section of road every day, piling the dust and grime into their wheelbarrows; the kind faces of the elderly people who sit in doorways and are thrilled when you surprise them with a “shikamoo” (the respectful greeting for those older than you); the makeshift toys of children – a plastic bag on a string becomes a kite, drink cartons with water bottle lid wheels for trucks; the upbeat music accompanying men with pushcarts who sell cassette tapes; the reds and blues of the elegant Maasai who suddenly appear together on the city streets, walking with their staffs over their shoulders. Once again, I look to Karen Blixen to accurately put my thoughts into words:

“When I look back upon my last months in Africa, it seems to me that the lifeless things were aware of my departure a long time before I was so myself. The hills, the forests, the plains and rivers, the wind, all knew that we were to part. When I first began to make terms with fate … the attitude of the landscape towards me changed. Till then I had been part of it, and the drought had been to me like a fever, and the flowering of the plain like a new frock. Now the country disengaged itself from me, and stood back a little, in order that I should see it clearly and as a whole.

I have before seen other countries, in the same manner, give themselves to you when you are about to leave them, but I had forgotten what it meant. I only thought that I had never seen the country so lovely, as if the contemplation of it would in itself be enough to make you happy all your life. Light and shade shared the landscape between them; rainbows stood in the sky.”

A stormy-day rainbow across the bay from Tilapia Hotel.

Tanzania – Wiki Kumi na Nne

Conducting a milk run in Mwanza - this is how the milk is supplied to our kitchen.

Alison and I spent Tuesday morning (the 6th) at our computers in the apartment, preparing update emails for the WHE steering committee and organizing ourselves for the week. After a couple stops in town, we had success in getting online at a new internet café that we discovered during our many trips to immigration. We were able to be quite productive online doing project research and communicating with the WHE leadership in Canada. I ran by the post office to mail some letters home before meeting Alison for lunch. Somehow, we discovered that the day had flown by and we only had time to look around town for a new clock for the community kitchen and grab some groceries before going to the language school for our Swahili lessons. We found out in class that there had been (another!) crocodile attack near Airport Road… a man lost his arm while cutting grasses near the water. It’s easy to forget that the scenic waters of Lake Victoria are home to these predators, however, we are quite vigilant about maintaining caution around the lake, especially because the water is also infested with the bilharzia parasite. After class, we swam laps with Manuela and Claire, ate dinner at Claire’s place, and went into town to meet Major and Ross to recap our adventures in Zanzibar.

Claire, Alison and I with our Swahili instructor, Gaudence.

On Wednesday morning (the 7th), Alison prepared an English lesson while I revamped an informational brochure for Tukwamuane. We arranged meetings with Dr. Changalucha (the director of NIMR) and Nico (Dr. Luginaah’s friend from grade school) for later in the week. Later, we stopped by the internet in town to continue our research (into issues such as registering Tukwamuane as a business, etc) and send more information home. We finished in time to grab a quick bite to eat with Claire in town, grabbed a big load of groceries at U-Turn and walked home.

We organized ourselves for our trip to Mabatini – spice boats for each mama as a zawadi (gift) from Zanzibar, the new wall clock for the kitchen, and the large number of containers needed to fill orders for yogurt from our friends in the area. I carried the spice boats on my head the whole way to Mabatini (without hands, even… like a REAL African mama!)… I’ve discovered that the Africans are really on to something, as long as one can maintain balance and try not to look around too much! We were thrilled to see that Mamas Elisabeth and Leah Mpangala had returned from their safaris to Dar es Salaam (for weddings etc). The mamas were happy to receive their gifts, and we had a productive English lesson. I was able to exchange thoughts with a mwalimu (teacher) from the local secondary school. The mamas have been running into problems with the street leadership in terms of getting their TASAF application completed. The mwalimu explained to me that there is a misconception in Mabatini that the mamas are (personally) receiving a lot of money and other support from the foreigners involved with the project; as such, the street leader is not willing to help them as he did in the past. We hope to get support from Kivulini and City Council to mediate the issue, as this misunderstanding could be very detrimental to the program. We were invited to stay for rice and beans with the mamas before returning home (with 9 ½ litres of yogurt on our heads) to spend a quiet night in.

We woke up to a very cloudy city on Thursday (the 8th). We walked to our 9am meeting with Dr. Changalucha at NIMR to discuss problems with the production and distribution of probiotic milk to the community kitchen. Changalucha promised to speak to the parties involved (the milk supplier and the microbiology department) and to call a meeting later on with everyone to discuss the issue. After NIMR, we walked to the Nyakahoja Dispensary to get Alison checked out – she was feeling quite under the weather. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with malaria (again! 2 rings!) but was able to start her medication regime right away. I had been in contact with Joseph Mlinzi (the mayor’s assistant) all morning, trying to arrange meetings with the TASAF coordinator (to solicit support for the completion of the mamas’ application) and to get information on BRELA (the organization that facilitates registration of business names), to no avail. Alison and I decided to head to City Council and try to find the appropriate individuals on our own. It turned out that we ran into Mlinzi in the office, and were informed that the TASAF coordinator was in Arusha and that BRELA issues are better handled through the Regional Commissioner’s office. A good try, nevertheless!

We stopped by the internet on the way home so that I could download BRELA forms and information from their website. After a quick lunch at home, we ventured back into town for our Swahili lessons and on to Tunza for yoga on the beach. Jenny (our friend & yoga instructor) brought her entire teenage soccer team along to participate, so we had a very full beach! Jenny has organized a soccer tournament to take place on World AIDS Day (December 1st)… she had orchestrated everything from the formation of the teams to the recruitment of sponsors (from both Tanzania and the US) for jerseys, trophies, shoes etc. A very impressive effort, that’s for sure! After yoga, we went to Claire’s with Jenny, Janine and Henk for dinner and board games.

Charlie, enjoying a snack of yogurt and mango at Forever Angels.

Alison and I were at our computers again on Friday morning (the 9th) inputting medical data from the orphanage and working on the Tukwamuane business balance sheet (which will be used to determine the working cost of a portion of yogurt), respectively. I prepared an English test for the mamas and popped down to the Mlango Mmoja internet café to send some questions home. Later, Alison and I walked up to Mabatini to spend some time at the kitchen. We chatted with the mamas and some Kivulini staff who were there before travelling to Bwiru to deliver yogurt to the orphanage and spend some time with the children.

Another 'Angel'... Michael, with an impressive yogurt mustache.

In the late afternoon, we returned to Mabatini, where we met Mama Paskwalina and Nico (Isaac’s friend). Nico is the pastor of a Roman Catholic Church in Nyakato, and was kind enough to agree to translate for us every once in a while. Together, we travelled to Mahina, where we met with about fifteen HIV+ individuals who receive the yogurt on a regular basis. While the faculty were here, it was suggested that we obtain medical records from the Mahina members so that their CD4 counts could be examined. This may provide a method of measuring the effectiveness of probiotics in treating the effects of HIV/AIDS. The community members agreed to assist us with this investigation, and were able to express some of their concerns and frustrations with the project. They have established a system where one individual travels to Mabatini to pick up the yogurt for everyone else… each member then contributes 100 Tsh (about 8 cents) towards transportation and travel time – the yogurt is otherwise free. Some individuals stated that they sometimes are unable to come up with the money to put towards the yogurt and therefore can’t take it every day as they should. They also complained that they had been promised a kitchen of their own by the Canadians but hadn’t seen anything happen yet. Mama Paskwalina was a great mediator and gently reminded the group that there were individuals in Mwanza who pay a great deal more to access the yogurt each day, and that the Mabatini mamas also had to wait for a long time to have their kitchen developed. She advised them to remain strong and patient, which they agreed to do. We returned home to have dinner with Ruben and Claire before Claire and I went into town to meet some friends and celebrate the arrival of the weekend.

On Saturday morning (the 10th), Alison and I met Lauren and Claire in town to do a bit of fabric/material shopping… we’re trying to make the most of having tailors available before our return home. We experienced our only sketchy market experiences so far as I was held by one man who was demanding money from me, another tried to slip my ring off of my hand, and Alison later discovered that her bag had been slashed by a blade of some kind. Luckily, there was no harm done and no property lost. We attributed the increase in ‘activity’ on the fact that we were travelling in a group of four, making us more conspicuous. We went to Tunza in the afternoon and watched the waves crash against the shore while having a ‘tea party’ on the sand with Didier (our French friend who is building a bank in Mwanza). We stayed at Tunza for a pojke on the beach under the stars, before going into town to dance with friends.

Enjoying freshly harvested coconuts (the 'Tunza Special') courtesy of Jan!

I spent Sunday morning (the 11th) editing Jodie’s evaluation of Kivulini’s activities from 2004-2007 and indulging in a new book which I borrowed from Claire. We were slow to get going but eventually went into town, where I managed to find a pair of cheap black high heels for the Charity Ball (I didn’t think that rubber flip-flops, Birkenstocks or my Crocs would be appropriate for a formal event). Yes, I bought high heels in Africa… unfortunately I had to leave them at the store have the insole glued back in, so I paid for half of the final price and received my receipt on a piece of torn cardboard… AWA! We caught a dala-dala to Saba Saba (the big market fairground where the trade fair was held) to browse the Sunday market, before walking on to Tunza to spend a quiet afternoon reading our novels and playing Scrabble. When a thunderstorm rolled in, we decided to relocate to Major’s place to watch a movie, and drove into town later to meet Ruben for dinner.

I know that I should find another resource to help explain aspects of my time in Africa, but I have found Karen Blixen’s prose to provide a lovely and accurate description of many of the details of life that we have encountered during our time here. This week, I’ll sign off with her interpretation of the slow pace of everything on this continent: “Natives dislike speed, as we dislike noise; it is to them, at the best, hard to bear. They are also on friendly terms with time, and the plan of beguiling or killing it does not come into their heads. In fact the more time you can give them, the happier they are, and if you commission a Kikuyu to hold your horse while you make a visit, you can see by his face that he hopes you will be a long, long time about it. He does not try to pass the time then, but sits down and lives.” This is a philosophy that I have really tried to embrace (though it’s often difficult for me to swallow!) in Tanzania… and an outlook on life that I think all Westerners need to learn from. Within several short weeks, I will be back in the break-neck pace of life in North America… here’s hoping I will still be able to find some ‘slow’ moments to appreciate life and all it has to offer.

Last Thursday's pink sky at Tunza... I will never grow tired of African sunsets!

Tanzania – Wiki Kumi na Tatu

Two Zanzibari beauties!

Alison and I woke up on Monday morning (the 29^th) to the sun burning down on Mwanza, so we opted to work inside for as long as we could. We spent the morning at our computers, typing out blog entries and English lessons. Eventually, we couldn’t excuse ourselves from the city any longer and headed into town for yet another appointment at “Uhamiaji”… the dreaded immigration office. This time we came armed with all the documents, letters, passport photos and US dollars that we’d been told we’d need. We were advised to return “kesho, kesho” (“tomorrow, tomorrow”, a very typical Tanzanian solution to any problem), and set off on the rest of the day’s errands. We attempted to access the internet (unsuccessfully), stopped by U-Turn to pick up cake mix to celebrate our roommate’s birthday, grabbed a cheap & filling lunch at MDBI (the equivalent of 80 cents for a full plate of food), and onwards to the travel agency to attempt to firm up hotel bookings for our weekend trip… unfortunately our agent wasn’t in, so we moved on. Eventually, we found a working internet connection at a café, so we were able to catch up on some emails before heading to Mabatini to teach. The mamas’ English is progressing quite well and most of our frustration lies in our inability to properly explain the grammatical concepts to them in Swahili so that they understand the nuances of the lessons… it might not be a bad idea for future interns to consider obtaining a TEOSL designation before travelling to Africa in order to better direct the Mamas’ studies.

From Mabatini, Alison and I went to Tunza to deliver another 7 ½ litres of yogurt to our ex-pat customers. In the month of October, we sold over 60 litres of yogurt to “wazungus” at a ‘premium’ price… higher than what the yogurt is sold for in Mabatini because we know that the wazungu market can easily absorb the cost. Alison dropped off the cake mix in Tunza’s kitchen and popped the whole thing in the oven to bake during our yoga class. After class, we went into town with Claire, Major and Tini (a German woman who is here building a preschool) to meet Ruben for his birthday dinner at Isamilo Lodge. We had a lovely evening, and Ruben made his wishes for the new year ahead.

Ruben, Alison and I celebrating his 23rd birthday.

On Tuesday morning (the 30^th), we headed into town early, hoping to get online before the afternoon rush messed up the network. Unfortunately, we had no success. We walked on to the travel agency to meet our agent; however, when she tried to tell us that every hotel on the island was booked up, we decided to take the matter into our own hands. An hour later, we had a place booked on the popular north beach. Score one point for Alison and Meaghan! After further failed attempts to get online at two more internet cafés, we took a deep breath over lunch in town. We stopped by the post office to send some letters home and decided to try the internet café that we always see advertised. Luckily, they had a working connection but a 45 minute wait for a computer. In the meantime, we decided to quickly return to “Uhamiaji” to pick up our renewed volunteer visas. We were given our receipts but were told to return “kesho, kesho” to have our passports stamped. We rolled our eyes (AWA… Africa Wins Again!) and returned to the post office to spend a bit of time online. In the café, Alison met a local banker who promised to help us find a good rate to exchange Tanzanian shillings to US dollars for our trip to Zanzibar… you never have to look far to find someone in this town who is willing to help you in ways that we are unaccustomed to in North America! We rushed to our Swahili lessons on the other side of town, picking up some produce along the way. After class, we swam laps at the International School with Claire and Manuela before preparing a delicious Greek-themed meal (inspired by Manuela’s Grecian backpacking trip last year) at Claire’s place. We returned home to large piles of laundry to hand-wash, and Alison kindly prepared the English lesson for the following day as I could barely keep my eyes open!

We departed early on Wednesday morning (the 31^st) to meet Mama Paskwalina at the bottom of the hill at Mabatini. We took a dala-dala together to the SIDO office to meet with the Regional Manager, Damian Changh’a. Together, we discussed the logistics of getting Tukwamuane’s yogurt certified by TBS (the Tanzanian Bureau of Standards) and by the TFDA (the Tanzanian Food and Drug Administration). He explained to us that a lot of these organizations are quite corrupt and to approach them requires some delicate tip-toeing. We agreed that it might be a good idea to hold off on chasing after these designations until the mamas acquire a larger building where they will have space to refine their production system. Damian gave us a new contact with BRELA (the organization which registers business names in Tanzania)… this effort has been undertaken by previous WHE interns but has not yet been completed. Damian also advised us regarding packaging, labelling, distribution, and obtaining a new translator for the project (Alison and I have found it extremely challenging to not have one, and we anticipate that new interns would be lost without one!). After our discussion, we met with a couple representatives from TFS (Tools for Solidarity), a group out of Belfast which organizes the equipment required for basic trades and sends it to Africa. Currently, TFS is building a new sewing facility for local artisans.

On our way back to the dala-dala, Mama Paskwalina made a contact with some of the tradespeople who work outside of SIDO… they requested that she return in the afternoon with 20 litres of yogurt to sell to them. We hope that opportunities like this will provide the mamas with a steady increase in their sales and help them to expand their business to serve the community. As we walked back to the kitchen, we picked up a small radio as a “zawadi” (gift) for the mamas. We dropped off their English lesson, picked up yogurt for the orphanage and drove to Bwiru to deliver it. We unsuccessfully attempted the internet when we got back into town, then walked to “Uhamiaji”, where we were told to return at 3pm for our stamps. We grabbed a quick lunch, withdrew Tanzanian shillings at the bank, and waited in line to exchange currency. After 25 minutes of waiting, the teller informed us that it was ‘very complicated’ to purchase US dollars (I don’t know how complicated it could possibly be?), so we made use of our banker contact. Giovan showed up after less than 10 minutes and took us to his old place of employment, where we obtained our money within 2 minutes. We returned to “Uhamiaji” and finally (after seven trips) finalized the renewal of our visas, maintaining our legal status in Tanzania! Afterwards, we finally succeeded in getting online… later returned home for a quiet night at the apartment, packing and preparing for our trip to Zanzibar.

On Thursday morning (the 1^st of November), Alison and I flew out of Mwanza to Dar es Salaam en route to Zanzibar. In Dar, we picked up our baggage from a conveyor belt full of plastic buckets tied with twine (most likely containing fish)… nothing but the best for African travellers! After shooing away Maasai porters (I can’t imagine how I would have felt if this had been my first African airport experience… the Nairobi airport isn’t quite so showy in terms of exposing tourists to ‘traditional’ East Africa), we killed some time in the airport’s internet café, then moved on to the international departure Duty Free shops. I spent the better part of an hour perusing the bookstores (making a list of ‘to-reads’ for when I return home) and sniffing perfume (a very foreign concept to me right now). Before we left Dar, we called Missy to wish her a happy birthday… unfortunately, we must have had very bad timing because the call obstructed our ears from the announcement that our plane was boarding. Luckily, an airport attendant recognized us and advised us that our plane was about to leave… cue Meaghan and Alison sprinting across the tarmac, climbing onto the plane just in time for our 15 min flight to the island of Zanzibar. We shuttled into Stonetown, found a room at Jambo Guest House and settled in before leaving to explore the city. Stonetown has a rich historical and cultural history, with major influences from the Portuguese, British, and Arabic settlers who established themselves in the city over the years. The city used to be the main port for the African slave trade, receiving over 60,000 slaves each year from the African mainland and selling them to buyers all over the Indian Ocean. We explored the narrow cobble-stoned streets on our way to Forodhani Gardens, a busy park on the shore where vendors sell skewers of meat and seafood into the night. We ate our first Zanzibari dinner there, slightly put off by the taste of fuel on our food, but enjoying the boisterous atmosphere of the Gardens. Later, we met a pair of travellers (Canadian and British) who were on a several month long Overland-truck tour of Africa. We went to a balconied restaurant to enjoy some of their stories over cups of fragrant spiced tea before returning to our guest house for the night.

Alison bargaining hard at Forodhani Gardens.

On Friday morning (the 2^nd), we embarked on our very-touristy spice tour. Zanzibar is famous for its spices, evident from the ever-present scents wafting through the air. We walked through a spice farm, discovering various production methods of henna, jackfruit, Zanzibari apples, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cocoa, lemongrass, vanilla, peppercorn, coffee, turmeric, coriander, ‘lipstick’ trees, ginger, etc. etc. We looked into a Persian bath built for the Sultan’s wife, and ate lunch under the leafy canopies of the fruit trees. We decided to take a dala-dala back into town to avoid a full-day tour, and spent the afternoon wandering through Stonetown’s streets, picking up gifts to bring home with us. Everyone visiting Zanzibar is a tourist and free prey for the locals, but Alison and I were able to avoid most of their attacks by surprising them with our (limited) knowledge of Swahili. We went to Freddy Mercury’s (yes, the Queen frontman was born and raised on spice island!) to watch the sunset
over dinner before tucking ourselves in at the guest house.

A cocoa tree sample - delicious!

We left for Kendwa beach early on Saturday morning (the 3^rd). We decided to avoid the expensive taxi ride by braving the dala-dala with our luggage… unfortunately, through a very heated exchange with locals and the driver, we were overcharged for our trip north (about $2.00 CDN when we should have been charged $1.00) and fumed most of the way to the beach, especially during our 20 min walk to our hotel down a rocky dirt road with our rolling suitcases (!!). Luckily, our frustration dissipated at the sight of the serene Indian Ocean lapping the white sand beach. We spent a very relaxing day on the beach, then watched the sunset silhouette handfuls of dhow boats floating in the sea. We had dinner with some Quebecers who we met in Stonetown… Marie-Yves, Frederic and Max, who are all in the army & air force. Fred (Marie-Yves’ boyfriend) and Max are currently stationed in Afghanistan, taking leave in Tanzania before heading back to the war. It certainly gave us some perspective, especially about how challenging a long-distance relationship can really be!

The idyllic beaches of Zanzibar.

On Sunday morning (the 4^th), we had breakfast on the beach before setting out for a snorkelling trip at a nearby island. On our way, we were excited to come across several pods of dolphins travelling together across the bay. We spent a couple hours gazing down at the abundant sea-life around the coral reefs… amazing! Afterwards, we wasted away the rest of the afternoon in and out of the sand and sea, before joining our Canadian friends for dinner under the stars.

We left the beach for the airport on Monday morning (the 5^th) via taxi this time (we decided that it would be a bit too risky to attempt the dala-dala again when trying to make a flight!).
We were stopped along the way at a police blockade, where our driver was almost given a fine for not being properly licensed as a taxi service. He whispered to us (in Swahili) to tell the cop that we were his friends… after a very sketchy exchange, we were off scot-free and (thankfully) made our flight with no problem. When we arrived in Dar, we found out that our connecting flight to Mwanza was delayed. Luckily, the airline provided us with a delicious lunch at an Indian buffet, allowing us to kill time before travelling back home. We spent a very quiet night at home last night… unpacking, sharing our travel stories with Ruben, and preparing to get back into project work this week.

Enjoying the sun and sand at Kendwa Rocks.

I haven’t been able to put down my latest novel (Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides), and I’ve been just as attached to many others which I’ve read during my time here. Without the “typical” entertainment sources that we have come accustomed to in the Western world (mostly associated with technology), I have fallen even more in love with the literature in my life. I came across a perfect thought in Out of Africa, one of my latest literary partners… “Books in a colony play a different part in your existence from what they do in Europe; there is a whole side of your life which there they alone take charge of; and on this account, according to their quality, you feel more grateful to them, or more indignant with them, than you will ever do in civilized countries.” (Karen Blixen)

The sun setting over the port in Stonetown.