Sunday, May 29, 2011

The Future of Tanzania

"Children are one third of our population and all of our future. "
 ~Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981


       
       Last week three other interns and I went to an orphanage in a rural area just outside of Dar es Salaam. It is run by a British couple named Mary and Rob Notman who have lived in Tanzania for approximately 12 years. There are 15 kids living in a house on acreage where they grow their own vegetables and have lots of room to run around. Besides Mary (who doesn’t live at the orphanage) there are two women, or Mamas, there to care for the children. There is also a two room school house on the property for local kids to attend. Mary doesn’t want the kids to feel as if they are living in an institution, but in a family home, so there are no signs or anything to indicate that there is an orphanage there. It’s down a long dirt road with fields and trees on all sides. If they can't be with their parents this seems like a pretty good place for children to grow up.
            A stable place to call home is very important for these children. Most of them are orphans because one or more of their parents died of AIDS.  According to Avert, an international HIV and AIDS charity, there are presently over 1.3 million children in Tanzania who have been orphaned as a result of AIDS. Over 100,000 Tanzanians are infected with HIV every year and quite a few of the children at the orphanage are HIV positive. Some of them have other disabilities, such as the set of twins who were born with club feet, or the baby with deformed legs who came to visit. When we were at the orphanage the twins had recently undergone surgery to correct one foot each and both had casts on. One of the twins had to back go to the hospital on the day we visited because the open wound beneath his cast had started to bleed. If it wasn’t for Mary and her organization who would make sure these kids received medical attention? Probably no one and they would be left to suffer. This breaks my heart, but at the same time I’m so happy that there are people like Mary and the Mamas here to care for these amazing kids.

            When we first arrived at the orphanage in the morning we spent an hour or so at the school on the property. The kids couldn’t have been any older than five, but they were so smart. I helped them with the alphabet and they knew most of it (in English). They mainly just had problems with M and N. And they knew all the colours in English as well. The teacher just had to point at something in the classroom, and they could name the colour. This success has come without the use of any school supplies other than a blackboard, some coloured chalk, and a couple posters with the ABCs and some animals on them. The kids sit on the floor and they have no books or pencils. There are not even doors or windows on the building, so when it rains the classrooms are full of water. I have to give a lot of credit to any teacher who can successfully teach in such a bare-bones classroom. These kids are so great though, I think it would be a joy to teach them in any setting. When the kids went for their break we played a game called follow the leader, and I immediately had two little girls clinging to my hands. I had comforted one of them earlier when a classmate was hitting her, and she just stuck to me after that. Maybe I just don’t spend much time with kids in Canada, but these kids seem so much sweeter and just eager for somebody to pay attention to them.


            The kids who live at the orphanage are especially great, and I spent the most time with them. After my morning in the school I spent the entire rest of the day with the kids and easily formed an attachment to all of them. Despite many of them being HIV positive they all seem like happy and healthy kids, even if they are a bit small for their age. We played games with them all day and they even attempted to teach me and the other interns how to sing and dance. That must have been entertaining for them, considering how little rhythm we have and how well they can all dance by the age of 6. They also braided our hair a lot; I think they loved having four girls with long hair around, as their hair is all cut short. We ended up with some pretty interesting hairstyles. And of course they documented the whole thing once they found out we had cameras. I love the things kids takes pictures of: dishes, a corn stalk, somebody’s foot. They are so good at entertaining themselves with so little. These kids have a big yard full of sand that they play in for hours, just drawing or building things. They have a couple books and free magazines to read. They have one soccer ball and a basketball hoop, a couple drums, and each other. And that’s all they need. They’d never say no to some new toys, but no video games are needed for these children. Kids in Canada could learn something.



PS: We will probably be making and selling a calendar later this year to help send the older kids to secondary school. Secondary school is not free in Tanzania, even in government schools where tuition is 15 USD per year, plus fees for everything imaginable. To even get into a government secondary school a student has to pass a standardized national exam. If they fail they must pay to go to a private school, where tuition is usually around 500 USD. This makes it extremely difficult for orphans like these kids to get an education. They’re so smart, and they just need that little bit of extra help. I’ll keep you posted :)





"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. "
~Frederick Douglass

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

A Party in the Kitchen

Some of the dresses at the kitchen party, all
the same but different
Last weekend two other interns and I went to a wedding with Mary, the executive director of Women Fund Tanzania. I believe the bride, Agnes, is Mary’s niece. This was actually a pre-wedding event, called a “kitchen party,” which only women are allowed to attend. It's sort of like the Tanzanian version of a bridal shower. Traditionally, this event would have been held in someone’s kitchen, with only the bride’s close female friends and family, and some women from the groom’s family in attendance. They get together to show support for the bride and give her advice on life, marriage, and motherhood. Today, this tradition has grown into a huge event, usually held in a hall to accommodate the 100+ women invited. Each wedding will have a different colour or fabric pattern associated with it (a kanga) and each woman attending is expected to wear it. If it is only a colour, say blue, the women can wear any blue outfit. If the bride has chosen a certain fabric though, all the women will have dresses or outfits designed and made out of the same material. The range of dress styles at this kitchen party was incredible. They were all so beautiful. Some were short, some were long, some looked traditional, and some were very modern. We felt a little out of place in what we were wearing; I wish someone had told us the colour of the kanga beforehand.
The bride in yellow
It took a while for the kitchen party to actually start, which is apparently normal here.  We spent two hours waiting for everyone to arrive, and the bride doesn’t show up until all the guests are seated, so it was a lot of waiting in the heat with little water to drink. Once the bride arrived and the party started, it consisted of mostly dancing. Almost every song came from a different region of Tanzania or a different country in Africa, and a lot of them had different dances to go along with them. We had so much fun dancing for hours with these ladies. They just let loose and dance like crazy nonstop, not like Canadian weddings where people have to be urged to get out of their seats and then they only dance to one song. I think the fact that it was just women there also helped; there were no men to interfere with the fun. (No offense to the men).
At traditional kitchen parties the older women give the bride advice on things like sex and how to be a good wife, as well as anecdotes from their own marriages. This seems like a beautiful tradition, this passing down of information from one generation to the next, but unfortunately the advice they give is generally to benefit the man in the relationship. It’s all about ways to please her husband, how the man is superior, how the wife needs to remember her place. Not so at this modern kitchen party, where Mary the women’s empowerment advocate was chosen to give the main speech. In the middle of the party Mary made a speech to the bride in which she talked about remembering who she is, what her values are and where she comes from, and not to lose these things simply because she is married. She told Agnes to respect her husband, but also remember that there are two people in a marriage and to respect herself as well. She also told Agnes to talk to someone if her husband beats or rapes her. Mary’s friend translated all this for us (it was in Kiswahili) and told us that often when a husband is beating his wife (which is common), he will stop after someone talks to him about it, but will continue if no one knows. These are the kinds of things brides need to be told before getting married in Tanzania, and all of these women at the kitchen party are there to support her and answer any questions she may have. Seeing how supportive women are of each other here gives me hope for women’s empowerment in this country. It is a good thing men are not allowed to attend these events though, because I can see how some of the things said would be offensive to husbands.
With my two wedding dates
There are several other events involved with a Tanzanian wedding. After the kitchen party comes the bride’s send-off party, where people also wear the same colour of kanga. Both women and men, including the groom, are allowed to attend this party. It is mostly people from the bride’s side of the family again, but some members from the groom’s side are invited as well. There is another party for the men, like a bachelor party, and then there is the typical white wedding ceremony followed by a reception with dinner and dancing. All of this can get very expensive, so each guest is asked to contribute to the cost of the wedding. Weddings are very important in Tanzania, so people are willing to spend a lot of money on any family or friends that are getting married. Couples receive very expensive gifts, the best each guest can afford. It is not uncommon to receive televisions or even cars as wedding gifts. There is not as much pressure to get married in Dar as there is in other areas of Tanzania. In rural areas women are married off for economic reasons to “good families”. The family of the bride may receive a large dowry, or maybe a couple of cows in exchange for their daughter. This is not legal but of course it still happens, as it does all over the world.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Hakuna Matata

         I started Swahili lessons this week and they're going really well. I have two teachers, Deo and Big Boy, and they make class fun, which makes learning so much easier. Greetings are very important to Tanzanians (there are over 100 ways to greet people), and not greeting them in return is considered very rude. People I talk to are so happy now when I speak even a little in Swahili. I have a long way to go yet, but at least I can answer when people ask me "Habari?" or "Hujambo?".  FYI, this is usually answered with "nzuri sana". 
Ninapenda Tanzania :)


Swahili on the roof with Deo


         I also got to start my internship at Women Fund Tanzania this week, even though things aren't official yet. We're still waiting for papers to be signed, but we've worked out which days I'll be at WFT and what it is I'll be working on. I'll be in the office three days a week and occasionally I'll be going with Mary to meetings or out in the field to meet women we could possibly help in the future. WFT really needs help with publicity and finding donors or other organizations with similar interests, so the other intern and I have already started a Facebook page which we will be updating regularly and using to link with other organizations. Who knew Facebook could be such a great tool! If anyone would like to check it out here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Women-Fund-Tanzania/113785412039439 . There's not much to it yet as we just started, but like it and help spread the word on this great up and coming organization, the first of it's kind in Tanzania! We will also be working on the WFT website and a pamphlet and we will be creating a database for the Fund as well as researching potential donors. I'm starting to realize that development work requires a whole lot of time spent in an office these days, and not much time spent out there doing the physical side of it. We had a meeting with someone from CIDA (the Canadian International Development Agency) yesterday, and he said CIDA employees now spend most of their time in meetings and doing paperwork. It's not like the old days of building schools and teaching best practices to rural farmers. I'm just happy to finally have things to work on, because I spend so much time just sitting in the office waiting for people to show up.
       Speaking of CIDA, we had to go downtown Dar to the Canadian High Commission for the meeting yesterday and we were invited to come back and watch the Canucks games there if they make it to the Stanley Cup final. How awesome would that be? The Canadian High Commission is the closest thing we're going to get to home around here, that's for sure. 

      I was starting to feel really good about Dar es Salaam, getting to know people and just feeling generally more comfortable here, when one thing yesterday kind of ruined it. We were having a really good day, with ten interns crammed into Iddi's van on the way to the High Commission, singing a song Iddi taught us in Swahili. The song goes like this:


Jambo, jambo bwana
Habari gani?
Nzuri sana
Wageni
Wakaribishwa
Tanzania yetu
Hakuna Matata!

      It was so much fun singing this song in Swahili over and over again with our taxi driver. I feel like we're really connecting with Iddi and making friends with him; some of the interns have even been to his home and met his family. That made it particularly difficult when we were pulled over later on the way home. We were stuck sitting in traffic and this police officer must have noticed a bunch of 'mzungus' and thought, oh, easy target. There were dalla dallas going by with people hanging out the doors, and trucks loaded with goods, with people sitting on top of the loads, along with bajajs whizzing by along the shoulder. And he decides to pull us over because there are two too many people in the van. It kind of shows you how corrupt people in a place of power can be here. The dalla dallas are privately owned and the cops tend to turn a blind eye to them depending on which wealthy businessman they belong to. Your average taxi driver has no influence on them. The officer looked so angry when he was talking to Iddi and we were terrified that he was going to lose his license/vehicle or have to pay a huge fine/bribe. We saw Iddi going into his pocket for his wallet, but luckily he was let go with just a warning. Or so he says. We didn't see him hand any money over anyway. This experience showed us just how much of a target we are, just based on our skin colour, no matter how at home we may begin to feel here. We have to be more careful to obey laws that are often merely suggestions   for the average person. But like the song says, hakuna matata. We're always going to stick out here, so there's no point worrying about it. I'll take the necessary precautions to keep myself, and my new friends like Iddi, safe, but beyond that, no worries!

Friday, May 6, 2011

Is it Possible for Me to Be Bored with Beaches?

       Today was a pretty useless day as most of it was spent suntanning and swimming in the ocean at a fancy resort,  yet again. Not that I didn't enjoy it, I absolutely love the beach, but it gets old when that's basically all you're doing three out of four days. Plus the only people at the beach are a few tourists and some fishermen. I'm not sure why nobody goes there, but its really not very exciting. I wish government documents didn't take so long to be processed, I just want to start this internship. Hopefully next week!

The beach at White Sands resort

      Despite the repetitiveness and uselessness of my afternoon, today was actually really good. This morning me and two other girls went to the Mwenge carvers' market, a fair sized market on the edge of town filled with fantastic carvings, paintings, jewelery, sandals, and dresses. Tanzanians are amazing artists. I wanted to bring everything home with me. The thing I loved best about this market, though, was how non-pushy the vendors were. This was such a great experience compared to Jamaica, the last country I was in. There the vendors were all grabbing my arm, insisting I buy things I didn't want, putting bracelets on my arm when I wasn't interested, and not taking no for an answer. At the Mwenge market everybody was just really friendly. Of course they all wanted to sell us things but they weren't fighting over us and pushing things on us. They would show us something and if we said no, that was fine and that was that. They wouldn't keep on asking how much I would buy it for (I hear it's like this all over the Caribbean. I'm sorry Caribbean, you're beautiful and all but you're not my favourite). This is the way I like to shop: help me when I need help, don't hound me. Yona, our taxi driver, did come into the market with us, so I'm not sure if that made a difference. But either way, I love how nice Tanzanians are.
        While I'm happy and on the topic of things I love about Tanzania: I love how green Dar es Salaam is! Not green as in environmentally friendly (because that is something it definitely isn't), but there are just trees and grass and plants everywhere. For a sprawling city of five million people this is very unusual. Nearly every street is lined with big, leafy trees, theres the occasional cow or chicken, and some residents have started up their own form of urban agriculture. They're planting corn and other vegetables in the empty spaces next to office buildings and stores. I don't think urban agriculture is officially allowed in Dar, but I do hope they keep up with it because it is such a good thing and it allows city dwellers to become a little more self sufficient. And maybe they won't have to buy produce from outside sources as much. Because even for us we noticed today that produce can be ridiculously expensive here. And if its expensive for us, how could someone who makes only the equivalent of $200 per year afford it? Food prices are rising globally and that is bad news for your average Tanzanian.
        The good news is that we are meeting with a local security company tomorrow, and maybe, just maybe we'll be able to use dalla-dallas and bajajs sometime soon?

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Welcome to Dar

       And welcome to the most disconnected from life I have ever felt. Not from life at home, I have internet so I know what's going on there, but from life here in Dar es Salaam. I've been in Tanzania for four days now and only now am I beginning to feel like that's actually where I am. I've been living in a house behind a gate in a wealthier part of the city with a bunch of Canadians, taking taxi's everywhere, shopping in Western style stores, eating at Italian restaurants and sunbathing at fancy beach resorts. This is not how I travel. Usually when I arrive somewhere I grab a map, walk out the front door of my cheap hostel and wander. I go to local markets, barter a little, eat mystery food from carts on the side of the road, maybe get lost a few times. And I always use public transportation like buses, tuk tuks, motorcycle taxis, ferries, etc.  
This is not the Tanzania I came here to see. 
      Because this internship was coordinated through a university I have to play by the university's rules. And their rules say safety first. This means taking taxis everywhere, always in groups of at least two. I am not even allowed to use a tuk tuk (or bajaj as its called here), despite the fact that it would be much faster and cheaper. And no ferries because, oh no, there may be pirates (there are Somalian pirates around, but they've never attacked the ferries). Everything I do has to be planned and approved. Its incredible how hemmed in and typically North American I'm feeling. And I hate this feeling. 
       If things continued this way I may have gone crazy.  But today, for the first time, I walked down the street to a bakery and a fruit stand and it was like being given a day pass from prison. I can't believe how freeing that was, just walking down the street and buying fruit. I realize safety measures are there for a reason, but seriously, I have no more chance of getting mugged on the street or hit by a bus here than anywhere else. Today I also met with Mary and Brian from Women Fund Tanzania and I was reminded of why I'm here. Mary seems like an incredible woman and she is so excited to get this fledgling NGO off the ground. After talking to her I'm excited too and I can't wait to get started and be a part of herstory (as she calls it). We're still waiting for Immigration to approve our resident visas so I can actually start my internship, but on Monday I'll be meeting with them again to go into deeper detail on what my project will entail. I also met two CIDA interns who work in the office just above where I'll be working. It sounds like they are working on really good projects that I can't wait to learn more about. These two have been here longer than me so they also have a lot of really helpful information on life in Dar. 
       Simply getting out of my gated compound and meeting people that live and work here has made me feel so much better. And I'm sure once I start working I will feel more like I'm actually in Tanzania, not just a humid version of North America where I can see Africa through the windows. 
          

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Africa What?



          Am I really going to be in Africa on Monday? It sure doesn't feel like it. It feels like I flew down to Houston just to hang out in the airport. I don't think my brain has accepted it yet. But thats normal for me I guess. It won't hit me until I walk through the airport doors into the heat and humidity of Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania. Until I'm sweating in a taxi crawling through traffic, wondering what my life is going to be like for the next four months. I hope that these next four months will be fulfilling, enlightening and educating. I already know that they will be filled with incredible people.
          I'm doing an internship in Dar for three months with an NGO (non-governmental organization) called Women Fund Tanzania (WFT). WFT is a non-profit, women's rights organization based in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania. In a country where women lack visibility and their contributions to society are undervalued or unnoticed, this organization aims to increase women's rights and empowerment through the implementation of a functional funding mechanism for women's groups. My job will be to assist in the organization of a coffee co-op. I will also be assisting with an organic coffee project in Arusha and another project with the Masaai. It's a good thing I like coffee, but I am completely and utterly inexperienced in this area and am a little worried about how much help I will actually be to them. What I am hoping, though, is that my three months spent with WFT will give me the experience and knowledge I need to work with similar organizations in the future.
I hope to spend my life in the field of development, and even though women's rights are not what I had in mind they are an extremely important piece in the development puzzle.
Throughout my three month internship (plus a few weeks of tourist time) in Tanzania I will continue to update this blog for anyone interested in the life of a lowly intern in an African NGO. Hopefully this goes well. 


Click here for a map of where my trip will have taken me by tomorrow afternoon