I'm pleased to say our week in Saitabau wrapped up pretty well. It was nice to be able to return to Arusha every day, because afternoons in the village kind of drag sometimes. On Thursday Leah and I went to lunch with Morgan, and loved the fact that we introduced him to one of our common lunch spots that he had never been to. He then showed us a public park in an area called Uzunguni (within Arusha), where the houses are beautiful, the trees are tall, and the streets are clean. Uzunguni was formerly populated with mostly wazungu (I hear many have since moved away, but the area remains relatively posh in contrast to the rest of the city), which is where it got its name... although when we asked that day, Morgan told us that Uzunguni means "Cool Place." We joked that we were introducing him to another of our spots, since he was the outsider to Uzunguni. It was nice to relax in an outdoor public area without being harassed, something I'm sure we can thank Morgan's presence for... unless of course you count stares as harassment. He tells us we make him famous.
The discovery of Uzunguni was actually quite nice, because there are some really nice "mzungu restaurants" there, as well as a really pretty (and quiet) walk I can take from my house to the center of town. I'm interested to see what the Chinese restaurant here is like! We had dinner in the area on Friday night, and the girls and I spent Saturday afternoon in the park again with some of our GSC interns. Leah and I spent that morning at a giant used clothing market where I picked up a few extra long skirts for village trainings-- it's always fun to make those transactions in Swahili. Since the interns like to treat us to nyama choma and Konyagi (grilled meat and local gin), we decided to treat them to a mzungu dinner at Njiro that night. There are several menus there you can order off of, so we decided to try Mexican food. I wish I had a picture of the guys' faces when they tried burritos for the first time... granted, they weren't the best burritos I've ever had, but those boys looked like they bit into a dirty diaper. It's so interesting how significantly a person's palate is molded by the foods they grow up eating! Poor guys. They were good sports.
This last week we camped at the furthest, most remote village GSC works with in Tanzania, called Tingatinga (as Jenaya puts it-- it's out in the Wop Wops). We stayed at a local mama's house, but slept in a tent outside because there were so many of us. The house was actually really beautiful, my guess is that they were the most well-to-do family in town. Our tent was next to their small shamba of beans and corn (HOORAY, intercropping!) and the rest of the house was surrounded by beautiful trees, including pomegranate, orange, avocado, and mango trees. As lovely as the house was (and as comparatively well-off we guessed the family to be), it was startling to witness how sick one of the kids was, while little attention seemed to be paid to his condition. The water we were given to shower with was always brown and there was a serious fly infestation around town... I think these factors might have contributed to the boy's illness. Pardon the graphic nature of this story, but the boy must have been about 3 years old and he would periodically (and seemingly uncontrollably) drop his pants wherever he was and suffered from completely white diarrhea. Quite startling. Coincidentally, I left Tingatinga with some scratched-open bug bites that were badly infected, swollen with pus. Oy.
But on a lighter note, there was another boy who lived there named Lukman who was about 10 and loooved hanging out with us during down time (of which there was plenty). Tanzanians love a card game called Last Card (last kardi) and Lukman begged us to play with him every single day. The girls helped me attempt to teach some of the guys how to play Thirteen with marginal success. The trees around the house made for an excellent outdoor meeting area, where the different programs would get together to have our nightly meeting, and it was a nice hang-out spot for socializing. One night the boys were preparing for a football game by having a few beers (I guess there was a bar with a TV not far from the house) and, perhaps encouraged by the drinks, Soningo and Ben demonstrated some Maasai singing and dancing for us. So awesome!
The actual training in Tingatinga was just okay. We didn't have a very good turn-out for SA, so we struggled with attendence quite a bit. It was my first week with CFGB though, got to teach with Ediltruda, the woman who trained me during orientation, which was really great. She's so nice and encouraging, not only with learning the methods but also with learning Swahili. One of the participants, Monika, was closer to my age and really enjoyed avoiding doing work on practical days by teaching me Swahili as well. I must admit, I selfishly loved it, but I'm not sure everyone else appreciated double digging a person short. This was also my first week doing chicken vaccinating in the mornings. We woke up at 5:30am and trained community members on how to vaccinate chickens against New Castle Disease, which is a big problem among chickens around the world. All you have to do is put one drop of the liquid in their eye every three months. GSC does the first round for free as they train the community members, then they allow the community vaccinators to set their own price to do the next administrations themselves. Tingatinga has many Maasai villages, so there weren't too many chickens to vaccinate (they mostly keep cattle) but it was a good introduction. And roosters are scary.
On Friday, we were told of a "short cut" back to Arusha, which consisted of our Jeep following tire tracks through the bush in a completely unmarked area. We left at around 4pm, and Soningo bet me that we would return by 5:30... I was sure that we wouldn't. The wager was one drink. By shortly after 5pm our path led us through Arusha National Park, where we saw a few groups of giraffe. We were nearly home! When we reached the gate to exit the park, the guards spotted the wazungu in the truck and refused to let us pass. After several minutes of negotiation and a very angry Musa (our driver), we turned around and found an alternate route through rural shambas and small villages. We arrived in Arusha around 7:45 that night. After that long in a cramped Jeep I was really ready for that drink!! The girls and I had our traditional Friday night pizza though, and called it a night after that. We were exhausted. Saturday we went to Arusha Coffee Lodge, a very mzungu (read: "fancy") resort next to a coffee shamba. We had a nice lunch there and lounged by the pool during the day. We spent that night once again with the interns, where I finally got my drink!, begining at a bar called Babylon (ironically, not a mzungu place, if you are a reggae fan) where we watched a Manchester United game. We ended the night at Maasai Camp for pool and dancing, which was a blast.
Sunday was nice and relaxing, begining with a home-cooked breakfast at Jenaya's house, and ending with a 3 hour nap at my homestay. I've come to really enjoy quiet Sundays, where I tend to wash my clothes outside in the late afternoon with my radio on a local station. There's something about the afternoon sun combined with the breeze that makes hand-washing clothes outside so completely enjoyable. Quite meditative, actually.
Until next weekend!
Monday, April 18, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Migombani, Saitabau, and Arusha Adventures
This week we are working in a village called Saitabau, which is close enough to Arusha to return to town every afternoon! (We call this a "town week") I apologize to all my fans for the lack of a post this last weekend, but I knew I'd be around this week to update. So let me back up a bit...
The last weekend I posted a blog, the girls and I checked out a hostel called Arusha Backpackers, which turned out to be an excellent spot for overnight accommodations. Pretty cheap, decent rooms, lots of travelers, and free breakfast in the morning... not to mention a rooftop bar! We spent the night there for a fun night together, and we all went to church with Molly the next morning. I really appreciated the sense of community at Arusha Community Church. There was time for chai and socializing after the service, and everyone was so welcoming to me. I didn't really feel a connection with the service, so I don't think I will continue to go, but I was glad to have experienced it. Afterward I went home to scoop up Karen and we had Ethiopian food with some GSC folks, then on to the circus, Mama Afrika, which was full of dancing and fancy acrobatics (no animals), which was great. Has anyone seen that Bela Fleck doc "Throw Down Your Heart?" I saw at the circus one of the musicians he plays with, the blind thumb piano player! He wasn't performing, and I only saw him for a minute, but I really had to fight myself not to jump up and down screaming like I was 13 and he was a member of the Backstreet Boys or something. Suuuuch a dork...
Monday we set off for Migombani. We heard that the Vice President of Tanzania was going to be in town that day, so they cancelled the first day's training because there was no doubt we would have been the only ones to show up. But, we were pleased to find that our guesthouse was top notch! Giant mosquito nets, hot showers, fans in our rooms, squat toilets that flushed, and even trash cans! We were so spoiled. The food was great, too-- we got avocado (parachichi) with every meal, hallelujah!
The SA folks had a rough time in Migombani because none of the farmers were really willing or able to break from farming to meet for the trainings, due to the season, but I happened to have agreed to work with the food drying group that week anyway. It was a great experience. We began by meeting our participants on Tuesday in a classroom, and introduced food drying and its benefits. A good introductory session, and our intern Morgan was a great translator. We tend to have afternoons free so I bought myself my very first kanga wrap-- excellent for in and out of showers, and especially for impromptu skirts or aprons when the situation calls for them. Wednesday we met at one of the mamas houses to begin teaching how to build the food dryers, and the participants brought really great materials, as we had asked them to do. They picked up the technique in a snap, and easily built several dryers in only a couple hours! The last time I helped with teaching how to build food dryers, the participants were all Masaai, and they have much less experience with basic tools like a hammer and nails. Thus, it is a much slower process. These participants were farmers and knew exactly what they were doing, which was quite nice for us!
After building food dryers on Wednesday, we went to help the GSC Appropriate Technology (AT) crew construct a grain storage device out of concrete at one of the participants' houses. I had never built anything out of concrete before, so it was really cool to see how it's done, and I've now got serious respect for folks who slap on concrete to horizontal structures like it's nothin'! Not easy. We were trying to get the base layer of concrete on while grave looking rainclouds taunted us in the background. We didn't quite finish before we had to duck inside to wait out a shower or two in the mama's house. It came down pretty hard, but we managed to keep the concrete dry enough to finish and leave by the early afternoon. We walked down the road toward the Jeep when our work was done, and soon approached a small crowd of villagers standing before a raging river, maybe 10 feet wide. On the other side, was our Jeep. It's amazing the amount of water those rains had brought!! It was definitely not safe to cross, and the folks standing around clearly didn't know how to handle the situation. We were then told there was a way to cross, so we followed some locals through a banana shamba to a jenky irrigation bridge, itself flowing with about 6 inches of water, that crossed the rushing river. We took off our shoes and socks, said some silent prayers I'm sure, and made our way across the slippery metal contraption. Only one person slipped, no one fell overboard, and thankfully we all made it across alive! I think we were all quite relieved.
When we returned to the guesthouse, I spotted some young boys in the front yard of a house across the street playing with a flat football (soccer ball, you Americans). I dropped my stuff inside and of course, all eyes were on me as soon as I approached them. "Na weza kucheza?" I asked. (Can I play?) Those kids were thrilled. They didn't speak much English, but we worked out some games through a combination of English, Swahili, and sign language. They were quite impressed with me! The mama came out of the house after a minute, and her English was quite good. She spoke to me and asked me questions while she watched us play. When I told her, yes, women do play football in America, she laughed out loud in amusement. Who knew! We quickly acquired more kids who wanted to play football with the crazy mzungu girl, as well as crowds of spectators that came and went, but the game ended when Mama announced it was bath time. So cute...
Thursday we showed our participants how to prepare food for drying, which is slicing them very thinly (after washing them of course, another aspect that we teach). We dried red onions, greens, and carrots. We had so much time after the food prep that our participants made even more dryers, including a super jumbo one! The house we were training at had a lot of animals, which I always love. Goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, a dog, and some cats. I definitely stand out by how enamored I become by the animals, the people just do not relate with that kind of affection toward them. It's quite hard for me to deal with, actually. One of the cats there was obviously sick. Cats are so good at personal hygeine that when you see a cat that looks mangy and unkempt, it's a classic singal that she is not well. The people definitely did not understand this, and resented the cat for looking so ugly. As it hunched over huffing and puffing, the women would kick or swat at it. Morgan once translated for me that one of the women wanted to throw it in the river, but I think he stopped translating those comments once he saw my reaction. So, so tragic.
By Friday, much of the food we had dried was complete, so we trained our participants on how to store it, and best of all, how to rehydrate it and cook it. There was a whole lot of skepticism, and people were becoming highly critical as they watched us soak the dried veggies. But sure enough, once it was done, everyone was blown away- it really tastes great. They told us how pleased they were, and that they would definitely continue to use their food dryers. We all found it to be such a gratifying experience, until after we handed out certificates and exchanged thank yous and goodbyes, they asked us for money in exchange for the time they had wasted in our training all week. OUCH. Apparently, this is quite common. Many NGOs working in Tanzania have made a habit of hanging out "sitting allowances," and as a result, people often expect hand-outs on top of the free trainings and materials. It's a big problem and it felt slightly disheartening, but I do think the people will benefit from this technology, so I'm glad for that.
Saturday I had my first out-of-pocket Swahili lesson with Godson, which was great. I then went on a mission to buy an outlet converter on the street for 2,000 Tsh, which I was told was a fair price ahead of time. The first prices I was given were 10,000, then 8,000, then 6, then 5. I was really eager for the challenge and the opportunity to test my Swahili. It took several attempts and many street vendors, but finally (with Molly's help) I got one for 2,000! It was a proud moment, but the real accomplishment will be when I get the price I want all by myself. :) That night the three of us girls went out with some of our college interns from GSC. They took us to an outdoor bar/restaurant for Konyagi and kuku choma (the local liquor of choice, and grilled chicken), followed by a popular international nightclub called Masaai Camp for more Konyagi, pool, and dancing. It was a really fun night! I've never been proposed to so many times. Except for in the villages maybe. Haha
We stayed at Arusha Backpackers again that night, so after breakfast in the morning we parted ways and I spent Sunday evening with Karen. She helped me buy a small radio and a football, and we spent the evening in the back garden playing with family and neighbors. I also went on a small excursion to the grocery store around the corner and made friends with more of my neighborhood vendors, which is a nice feeling.
This Monday we began training at Saitabau, which is going quite nicely. This time we are training in BIA, and the classroom sessions have gone as smoothly as you could hope for, complete with a marriage proposal at the end. Today we did a double-dug bed practical, and tomorrow we'll create a compost heap.
Last night I spent some time in the office uploading Facebook pictures, and I realized it had gotten dark by the time I was ready to leave. It was only 7:15 or so, but as the sun had gone down, the shortcut I usually take through an apartment complex was locked and my walk home jumped from 15 minutes to at least 30. Oy... I felt plenty safe, even though it was dark, because it was still early and there were lots of people around. Still, it was my first long walk in the dark on my own, so I wanted to walk at a brisk pace. I managed to get within a couple minutes of my house, when I hear, "Hello, miss!" It was Morgan! He was out for a walk with a friend of his and spotted me on the street amongst the masses. (I guess it's not that hard when you're the only white girl on the street... I must glow in the dark) He invited me to dinner with them, and I was happy spend some extra time with friends. It couldn't have been 5 minutes later that, when in the middle of a sentence, I walked straight into about 6 inches of soft, gooshy mud. "Ooohh!! Pole, Andi!!" they both managed in between bursts of laughter. Pole, an expression of sympathy, is an extremely common phrase here. My ag vocab came in handy when I said that it looked like I had walked into a pile of manure, which couldn't have been more accurate. Morgan led me to a nearby shoe salesman, and spoke some words in Swahili. Shoe salesmen in TZ generally acquire second hand shoes, scrub them clean, and sell them on the street. The man was so nice, and was happy to offer me buckets of water, and kept sprinkling powdered soap on my feet as Morgan helped scrub them clean. He kept saying, "Hamnashida! No problem! Tanzania is about peace and love, you know!" Morgan's friend Sydney took photos while laughing all the while. What a mzungu I am.
Dinner with the guys afterward was lovely, and Baba Karen (Karen's dad) was still up when I got home watching a football game. We watched the game together before heading to bed, and I'm pleased to announce my sandals are dry today. :) It's been a fun week and a half since I posted last, and I am becoming more and more comfortable in this city. The more I get to know people and places, the more it feels like home, and it helps that my Swahili is really coming along, too. I believe I will be camping next week, so the next blog post may wait until the weekend after this one. In the meantime, enjoy the photos I was finally able to upload! :)
The last weekend I posted a blog, the girls and I checked out a hostel called Arusha Backpackers, which turned out to be an excellent spot for overnight accommodations. Pretty cheap, decent rooms, lots of travelers, and free breakfast in the morning... not to mention a rooftop bar! We spent the night there for a fun night together, and we all went to church with Molly the next morning. I really appreciated the sense of community at Arusha Community Church. There was time for chai and socializing after the service, and everyone was so welcoming to me. I didn't really feel a connection with the service, so I don't think I will continue to go, but I was glad to have experienced it. Afterward I went home to scoop up Karen and we had Ethiopian food with some GSC folks, then on to the circus, Mama Afrika, which was full of dancing and fancy acrobatics (no animals), which was great. Has anyone seen that Bela Fleck doc "Throw Down Your Heart?" I saw at the circus one of the musicians he plays with, the blind thumb piano player! He wasn't performing, and I only saw him for a minute, but I really had to fight myself not to jump up and down screaming like I was 13 and he was a member of the Backstreet Boys or something. Suuuuch a dork...
Monday we set off for Migombani. We heard that the Vice President of Tanzania was going to be in town that day, so they cancelled the first day's training because there was no doubt we would have been the only ones to show up. But, we were pleased to find that our guesthouse was top notch! Giant mosquito nets, hot showers, fans in our rooms, squat toilets that flushed, and even trash cans! We were so spoiled. The food was great, too-- we got avocado (parachichi) with every meal, hallelujah!
The SA folks had a rough time in Migombani because none of the farmers were really willing or able to break from farming to meet for the trainings, due to the season, but I happened to have agreed to work with the food drying group that week anyway. It was a great experience. We began by meeting our participants on Tuesday in a classroom, and introduced food drying and its benefits. A good introductory session, and our intern Morgan was a great translator. We tend to have afternoons free so I bought myself my very first kanga wrap-- excellent for in and out of showers, and especially for impromptu skirts or aprons when the situation calls for them. Wednesday we met at one of the mamas houses to begin teaching how to build the food dryers, and the participants brought really great materials, as we had asked them to do. They picked up the technique in a snap, and easily built several dryers in only a couple hours! The last time I helped with teaching how to build food dryers, the participants were all Masaai, and they have much less experience with basic tools like a hammer and nails. Thus, it is a much slower process. These participants were farmers and knew exactly what they were doing, which was quite nice for us!
After building food dryers on Wednesday, we went to help the GSC Appropriate Technology (AT) crew construct a grain storage device out of concrete at one of the participants' houses. I had never built anything out of concrete before, so it was really cool to see how it's done, and I've now got serious respect for folks who slap on concrete to horizontal structures like it's nothin'! Not easy. We were trying to get the base layer of concrete on while grave looking rainclouds taunted us in the background. We didn't quite finish before we had to duck inside to wait out a shower or two in the mama's house. It came down pretty hard, but we managed to keep the concrete dry enough to finish and leave by the early afternoon. We walked down the road toward the Jeep when our work was done, and soon approached a small crowd of villagers standing before a raging river, maybe 10 feet wide. On the other side, was our Jeep. It's amazing the amount of water those rains had brought!! It was definitely not safe to cross, and the folks standing around clearly didn't know how to handle the situation. We were then told there was a way to cross, so we followed some locals through a banana shamba to a jenky irrigation bridge, itself flowing with about 6 inches of water, that crossed the rushing river. We took off our shoes and socks, said some silent prayers I'm sure, and made our way across the slippery metal contraption. Only one person slipped, no one fell overboard, and thankfully we all made it across alive! I think we were all quite relieved.
When we returned to the guesthouse, I spotted some young boys in the front yard of a house across the street playing with a flat football (soccer ball, you Americans). I dropped my stuff inside and of course, all eyes were on me as soon as I approached them. "Na weza kucheza?" I asked. (Can I play?) Those kids were thrilled. They didn't speak much English, but we worked out some games through a combination of English, Swahili, and sign language. They were quite impressed with me! The mama came out of the house after a minute, and her English was quite good. She spoke to me and asked me questions while she watched us play. When I told her, yes, women do play football in America, she laughed out loud in amusement. Who knew! We quickly acquired more kids who wanted to play football with the crazy mzungu girl, as well as crowds of spectators that came and went, but the game ended when Mama announced it was bath time. So cute...
Thursday we showed our participants how to prepare food for drying, which is slicing them very thinly (after washing them of course, another aspect that we teach). We dried red onions, greens, and carrots. We had so much time after the food prep that our participants made even more dryers, including a super jumbo one! The house we were training at had a lot of animals, which I always love. Goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, a dog, and some cats. I definitely stand out by how enamored I become by the animals, the people just do not relate with that kind of affection toward them. It's quite hard for me to deal with, actually. One of the cats there was obviously sick. Cats are so good at personal hygeine that when you see a cat that looks mangy and unkempt, it's a classic singal that she is not well. The people definitely did not understand this, and resented the cat for looking so ugly. As it hunched over huffing and puffing, the women would kick or swat at it. Morgan once translated for me that one of the women wanted to throw it in the river, but I think he stopped translating those comments once he saw my reaction. So, so tragic.
By Friday, much of the food we had dried was complete, so we trained our participants on how to store it, and best of all, how to rehydrate it and cook it. There was a whole lot of skepticism, and people were becoming highly critical as they watched us soak the dried veggies. But sure enough, once it was done, everyone was blown away- it really tastes great. They told us how pleased they were, and that they would definitely continue to use their food dryers. We all found it to be such a gratifying experience, until after we handed out certificates and exchanged thank yous and goodbyes, they asked us for money in exchange for the time they had wasted in our training all week. OUCH. Apparently, this is quite common. Many NGOs working in Tanzania have made a habit of hanging out "sitting allowances," and as a result, people often expect hand-outs on top of the free trainings and materials. It's a big problem and it felt slightly disheartening, but I do think the people will benefit from this technology, so I'm glad for that.
Saturday I had my first out-of-pocket Swahili lesson with Godson, which was great. I then went on a mission to buy an outlet converter on the street for 2,000 Tsh, which I was told was a fair price ahead of time. The first prices I was given were 10,000, then 8,000, then 6, then 5. I was really eager for the challenge and the opportunity to test my Swahili. It took several attempts and many street vendors, but finally (with Molly's help) I got one for 2,000! It was a proud moment, but the real accomplishment will be when I get the price I want all by myself. :) That night the three of us girls went out with some of our college interns from GSC. They took us to an outdoor bar/restaurant for Konyagi and kuku choma (the local liquor of choice, and grilled chicken), followed by a popular international nightclub called Masaai Camp for more Konyagi, pool, and dancing. It was a really fun night! I've never been proposed to so many times. Except for in the villages maybe. Haha
We stayed at Arusha Backpackers again that night, so after breakfast in the morning we parted ways and I spent Sunday evening with Karen. She helped me buy a small radio and a football, and we spent the evening in the back garden playing with family and neighbors. I also went on a small excursion to the grocery store around the corner and made friends with more of my neighborhood vendors, which is a nice feeling.
This Monday we began training at Saitabau, which is going quite nicely. This time we are training in BIA, and the classroom sessions have gone as smoothly as you could hope for, complete with a marriage proposal at the end. Today we did a double-dug bed practical, and tomorrow we'll create a compost heap.
Last night I spent some time in the office uploading Facebook pictures, and I realized it had gotten dark by the time I was ready to leave. It was only 7:15 or so, but as the sun had gone down, the shortcut I usually take through an apartment complex was locked and my walk home jumped from 15 minutes to at least 30. Oy... I felt plenty safe, even though it was dark, because it was still early and there were lots of people around. Still, it was my first long walk in the dark on my own, so I wanted to walk at a brisk pace. I managed to get within a couple minutes of my house, when I hear, "Hello, miss!" It was Morgan! He was out for a walk with a friend of his and spotted me on the street amongst the masses. (I guess it's not that hard when you're the only white girl on the street... I must glow in the dark) He invited me to dinner with them, and I was happy spend some extra time with friends. It couldn't have been 5 minutes later that, when in the middle of a sentence, I walked straight into about 6 inches of soft, gooshy mud. "Ooohh!! Pole, Andi!!" they both managed in between bursts of laughter. Pole, an expression of sympathy, is an extremely common phrase here. My ag vocab came in handy when I said that it looked like I had walked into a pile of manure, which couldn't have been more accurate. Morgan led me to a nearby shoe salesman, and spoke some words in Swahili. Shoe salesmen in TZ generally acquire second hand shoes, scrub them clean, and sell them on the street. The man was so nice, and was happy to offer me buckets of water, and kept sprinkling powdered soap on my feet as Morgan helped scrub them clean. He kept saying, "Hamnashida! No problem! Tanzania is about peace and love, you know!" Morgan's friend Sydney took photos while laughing all the while. What a mzungu I am.
Dinner with the guys afterward was lovely, and Baba Karen (Karen's dad) was still up when I got home watching a football game. We watched the game together before heading to bed, and I'm pleased to announce my sandals are dry today. :) It's been a fun week and a half since I posted last, and I am becoming more and more comfortable in this city. The more I get to know people and places, the more it feels like home, and it helps that my Swahili is really coming along, too. I believe I will be camping next week, so the next blog post may wait until the weekend after this one. In the meantime, enjoy the photos I was finally able to upload! :)
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