A bit of a beginning...

Hi! So it is Saturday, September 30th, and I can’t believe it. I have been here now for 2 weeks and 4 days. In some ways the time has flown by, and I feel that I have been here for years and can’t really imagine anything else right now. Then on the other hand I judge the amount of things I have done and realize I really do have so much more to learn about life in Tanzania in terms of, well, everything. I am still (and I think any white person is and would always be) overwhelmed in the market place, having people shouting ‘Mzungu’ and having little boys trying to carry my basket of vegetables for me so they can make a few shillings. I recognize two boys in the market place, Omal and John, so that is comforting that they will always come and find me, and whats a few cents to give someone to carry a basket for me- probably safer than me carrying it myself!! Yesterday I (with Mama Mary, the kitchen staff here at treehouse) went down to the market…we were going to go today but we heard news that there may be a riot today- a riot similar to one that happened in February in which the police aimed to get all the Jukas (I have no idea if that’s the right word- but the people selling anything from shoes to soap etc on the side of the road on tarps) off of the road…and quite violently I might add. So we made a wise decision to go on Friday instead. As well, being overwhelmed in the market includes having people shouting in Kiswahili, still foreign to my ears, come here, look at my grapes, look at my pinapples, but my oranges….all from about 100 directions…and being white, that generally means I am paying a higher price, and once one woman selling oranges asks for a price, that’s what they will all ask for- they are like a team vs. the white person with money. Haha. But anyways…that’s just a quick run down…I love it though, all the people and just seeing how they all work together- chaotic but there is order in it- there will always be a group of men barging by carrying a bag of freshly but grass or pushing you over as they carry a newly made bed frame or something! So many things to see!
Anyways the point of this blog entry is to tell you the progress on my work. I am learning patience and not to worry about how things progress around here. A meeting planned for last Wednesday may well happen the next week, depending on power, phone service and transportation. This week though I, along with Steve and Jan (my CRWRC ‘supervisors’) worked on planning some good old PRA or RRA or PAR ( we like discussing what in the world to call it exactly, but with the words Rapid, Rural, Appraisal and most importantly, PARTICIPATORY) to use as research alongside the data that I will eventually be working with. It is exciting and I can’t believe that I can be a part of it. As I myself am still wrapping my head around it, I will tell you the basics. We (Jan and I, along with Mr Pamba (an elderly man working with the Buhumbi Village GMHP (Growth Monitoring Health Program, from which the data I will be working with is from, about the health of children under 5)) who also works with agriculture along with Steve) plan to do some Participatory research gathering in the Buhumbi village. As of now, we are still waiting to meet with Mr Pamba for a pre-meeting, as he will be the one asking most of the questions of the women participating. You can imagine some frustration on my part as I understand little Kiswahili and no Sakuma (which is the tribal language they speak in Buhumbi) but am still so thankful that I can go along and observe and be the photographer.
The aim of this research will be to gather information such as rainfall and harvest as a trendline over the past 10 years, to gather information for an average year about what is grown and eaten from women’s kitchen garden (with chakula bora “healthy food”), which child sicknesses are prevalent in which months, what a typical child is fed each year until they are 5 years old, as well as asking information such as how long each ‘interviewee’ has been a part of the GMHP with her children, and the families sources of food (such as crops, storage, or buying the food). All of this information I will attempt to sort through and look for how it relates to the trendlines (to be created with the GMHP data) and insights from the data about the health of the children per month over the last 10 years.
I have come to a few conclusions before beginning this undertaking:
-I am so thankful that Jan is helping (she has worked in Africa many years as well as doing PRA)
-This project seems that it could inflate into a huge undertaking if I am not careful to write and maintain objectives
-I am allowed to relax and take time to enjoy the different world around me, and learn some Swahili and enjoy the people
- I am still very tired and hope it stops soon!
-I am going to have to learn to allow God to work through me, to be attentive to others, to let Him help me understand how this will all fit together and give me creativity…to make His power perfect in my weakness

Work Ethic

Many times, assumptions are made by others about the type of work ethic held by people living in countries such as this, where it is hot and not much seems to get done- according to our western standards. But here I see that many people must live day by day. Work here also includes the gardening, the carrying of water, the picking of fruit, walking to get food from the market, pounding the ginger or ugali etc., starting the fire after gathering the firewood, maybe this includes carrying firewood up 300 ft to where your small house sits atop the rocky hill… Doing things that would generally not even be thought of take up time here. Even feeding cows means going almost everyday to find a field of grass, cutting it, and bringing it back, maybe on a bike, to where the cows are held in stalls. Filling in a wall with cement and sand doesn’t mean something easy- I saw a young girl yesterday filling up a sack the size of a big sack of flour with sand (from the bottom of the hill of rocks which I live at the bottom of, on which there are many small houses- it is very steep to climb). She was preparing to carry it up the hill to where she lives. I would hardly be able to lift it up, let alone put it on my head. I also watched as another young girl carried about a 10 foot log on her head, with her arms straight up and bent at the elbows to balance the log with her forearms behind her head. Climbing the rocks! I do not think there is such thing as a poor work ethic here, but rather the essentials of daily living take priority; they take much longer and require more attention than our daily needs (which technology has helped with, sometimes good, maybe sometimes bad).

Life here is very based on relationships and spending time with others. As mentioned before, greetings take up a lot of time, but it is important to ensure the wellness of others and their families. Time takes on a different meaning and only the essentials are done- taking on the meaning of living day by day. Is not living similarly to this what we are called to do as Christians? Jesus said not to worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough worries of its own. “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” (Matt. 6:34, MSG). Of course I’m not saying that we must live how people do here, and observations made are generalized, but I believe there are lessons to learn.
I hope things are well for anyone reading this! Please keep in touch

Tilapia and 5 Italians

So a few nights ago, while there was a group of Italian women staying at this guesthouse, I went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant with them and Elisa, another Italian who works here. As there haven’t been too many people around, I was glad for the invite, even though much of the conversation took place in Italian- just another cultural experience I told myself, and I like the company! Anyways, I was determined to try some more ethnic food here, and in my Swahili class I had learned how to ask for this type of food. Ugali (maize, they make it with a white maize powder like flour mixed into water- like instant mashed potatoes and it can get really stiff so it can be picked up with your fingers and dipped into whatever else you are eating it with), samaki ya kuchemsha (boiled fish, in this case Tilapia- another common fish around here is the Nile Perch- which is not at all indigenous but rather has served to take over many other fish in Lake Victoria) and Mboga (vegetables) seems fairly common so that is what I ordered. I was quite surprised when a big plate came my way, very full I might add, kind of looked like a platter, food for 3 days…Anyways this plate consisted of the vegetables and fish…the light was pretty dim so it took me a minute and I realized there was a whole fish on my plate, boiled to a point where touching it made it fall apart…and it was covered in the vegetables. I uncovered the fish, revealing its head, eyeball and tail. The whole fish was almost a foot long and five inches high. I decided this was not the night for me to take apart a fish. Thankfully one of the Italian women happily took over for me and I felt like a kid as she took the fish (it fell apart but we managed to get it all on another plate) and skinned and took the head tail and bones out of it for me. Fish head is a delicacy but I was far from eating it. Well it was a great meal, and I am determined next time to ‘peel’ and ‘disect’ my own fish, so as not to disappoint you, dad!

Outside of Mwanza

The time of year is very dry. This is on the way back to Mwanza from Buhumbi (Bahumbi), Bahumbi was about an hours drive, and I even saw a monkey cross the road!

Kiswahili, Buhumbi and the Marketplace

I am glad that I took a cross cultural communications class at Trinity. It has helped open my eyes to alot of things here. Just by beginning to study Kiswahili it is very apparent that respect and the correct greetings are very important in this culture. It is essential to make sure that no one that you talk to feels that they have been slighted and have not been given a sufficient amount of your time spent making sure everything is okay. Hujambo basically means "I assume nothing is wrong with you" to reply "Sijambo" meaning "yes nothing is wrong with me". In addition there are many different ways to inquire this, to many people, about someone or about many people. Then there are many ways to ask how you are doing. For example "Habari Yako"- How are you, then "Habari Zako" tell me all your news, or "Habari za tangu jana" How are you since yesterday. I have a page of different Habari's!! Wow- things such as greetings are very particular, showing their importance. As well as important greetings for elders ( I say Shikamoo to my elders- which brings a smiley response of suprise at me as a white person!!).

To add a few things to what has been going on here: I haven't begun actual "work" but am becoming accustomed to the culture and language here. My supervisor is gone to a regional meeting for the week, so it is my week to study. On friday though, we went to look at the village Bahumbi, where they are weighing children once a month (and sometimes once a week in excitement) to record on charts. If children are in the green part of a chart, created by WHO (world health organization) then the goal has been met, and theoretically the child should be healthy. I met the executive of this project and was toured around and led to sign multiple guest books, and the women weighing their children were told in Sakuma (another language) to "hurry up and put your baby in the scale and show this lady what we do here" (I learned later the women were just nonchalantly sitting around and the executive really had nothing to do with the clinic, but it is her place to be in charge, and therefore made herself very important and showed me around, seeming that she had everything to do in the world with this project.) I do not wish to disrespect her as this is the culture here, but back home someone who "pretended" to have everything good to do with a project but really hadn't done much with it at all might be kicked in the butt (or maybe not??).
Anyways, the next thing I would like to share is about the market. It runs every day but I went down on saturday with Winnie, who is the cook here. I caused her undo heartache because of being a white person, and received many insults that she was trying to get me deals (she did get me fair prices though...although when i summed it up later i felt extremely guilty about how cheap it was). She had to do shopping for her own cooking though, and I tagged along to see how it is done. Of course every vendor told her a price to ask me, and she told them the fair price- they didn't put up a fight and were gracious to me except for one young man who insulted her and served to dampen the mood. Needless to say I feel compelled to go to the market on my own next time- lets see how well I will do!
Here is a list of what I bought. $1 (US) is about 1328 Tanz.Shillings:

Straw hat: 1000
Pinapple: 500
6 green peppers 200
6 big carrots 500
.5 kg onions 350
.5 kg beans 400
6 tomatoes 200
1 watermelon 300
3 cucumbers 200
1 kg rice 750
_______
4400 TSH = 3.35 USD
YIKES!! Think about that for a minute. I don't know what it should imply but that is astounding.

pictures: papaya tree in the back yard, and view off the veranda in the front of the treehouse- Lake Victoria in the background.

All is Well!

Well, there are so many things to say. I have been introduced to many people as well as trying to converse in a language that I am completely unfamiliar with, and keep finding myself trying to talk creole (language in Haiti which I can get by with) to all the passing people. Tomorrow I begin Swahili class, and will take this class for two weeks, two hours per day (unless I decide that it too much). My day consisted of walking to my supervisor's (Steve, from CRWRC) house which is down the road from the treehouse about a 10 minute walk, navigating my way under the scorching sun and along the road on which people drive on the left side!! We went to the language school, set up a class, and then went for lunch. So far my time has been alot of sleeping- it is 9 hours ahead of home here and I don't kn (ow what my body wants. Just sleep I suppose. Then I went for supper to a restaurant run by women, part of an organization that works with women who need education and support. It was very good, and not expensive.
I feel that I am living a high life, in that I've gone out for meals, been served breakfast, had Winnie (the wonderful Tanzanian woman who works at the Treehouse) make my bed and do my laundry (being a guest here in Tanzania is very important I am finding, and it is best, being culturally sensitive (as much as this goes against my honest desire to clean my own dishes and fry my own egg for breakie and make my bed), to allow myself to be treated as such: a guest. I am sure as time goes on I will be able to help with a few things, maybe even weed the garden.
My flights went well, as well as my day in London. British Airways is very strict about luggage and carry on, but very generous with their service. I even had a small bottle of wine with my dinner, and have an English accent resounding in my head:)
Steve and his wife Jan are very hospitable, and I think I will make friends with their 3 young boys who are eager to share any information they have learned.
Tomorrow we will go visit the community Bahumbi where the monitoring of child health has been going on for 10 years (which is the data that I will be working with for my internship).
Life here takes time, and time is not such an issue. Things will happen slow or fast, depending on who and where.
Mwanza is a multicultural centre, and full of different people such as Sikh's, Hindu's and Muslims, as well as Christians, all tied together by a common lanuage: the 'lingua franca', Swahili. Lake Victoria can be seen from the veranda at the Treehouse, and I can hear cows, goats and chickens, and there is an ant crawling across my screen, and geckos are near.
It is very pleasant and I can see that God is providing for me in all things. I am excited to learn and grow, and hopefully be of service to CRWRC.

This is long enough I am sure, and I have much more to share but I shall stop here. Keep in touch! Amani! (peace)

Its only NINE days till I leave

hello new house, goodbye old house


time is flying and there is so much to do- trying to help landscape the front of our new house and to prepare for going to Tanzania (needles, packing- only 23kgs!!...lots more)... I got some sweet binoculars from my dad so I can see giraffes and zebras and other cool wildlife from far away. I will be staying about 3 hours away from one of the most popular destinations for safaris (which actually means 'trip' in Swahili)- Serengeti National Park. Did you know you can just go camping in the park with a tent and look for wildlife? Crazy. So exciting. I was going on here to write some things about Tanzania that I am learning, but just decided maybe I'll wait till I'm there and then I will be sure that what I write is correct. I'm trying to learn some Swahili- it is SO different from any language I have encountered. Jambo=hello, Habari = hello/how are you. Asante= thank you....

anyways in case you are interested in where I will live, and for your next trip to Tanzania :) here is the website about streetwise africa, a mission that works to increase the quality of life for street kids in mwanza. http://www.streetwise-africa.org/