As I sit here typing this post from a hotel in Zanzibar, I feel as if I have already left Tanzania. The last two weeks have gone so fast. Getting everything finished for the project has taken up most of my waking hours this week and going to bed last night I felt a burden was lifted and I could rest easily. This morning we traveled to Dar by dalla-dalla (mini bus) and then hopped on a ferry across the short stretch of Indian Ocean separating Tanzania from Zanzibar. I haven’t really even left the country, but where I am now is so different from where I’ve come from.
When I first set foot in Tanzania 10 weeks ago, I was overwhelmed by it. The heat just pounded on me, the noises of cars honking, and the hustle and bustle of Dar made me question whether I was really supposed to be in Tanzania or if I should have gotten on a plane back to the US. Though I was hesitant at the start, I am so happy I decided to come here. Spending the time to get to know Bagamoyo was more than I could have hoped for. I feel that I really understand it. I know how life works here. I think the research I’ve been doing has helped immensely in this process. Sitting and listening to mothers talk about their lives, communities, and children has opened my eyes. Life here is hard. Mothers have to work on farms, take care of their kids, walk hours to fetch water, and be everything to their family. When health issues crop up, there is no one there to help and it is almost impossible for them to take the time to travel to the doctor. This past week, I went along with a friend of mine who is a Swiss doctor into the Hospital in Bagamoyo and got to see firsthand how this really affects people. I saw this mother, likely in her 40s, who had walked several miles to the hospital because of an abscess on her foot. This wasn’t just a small abscess, this wound had eaten away the entire top of her foot exposing all of the bones. And she walked miles to the hospital on that foot.
I also really got into the routine of life in Bagamoyo. I knew which dukas (shops kind of like a ticket window) had which things. I could tell you the best place to go to get lunch or show you where and when everyone goes to play soccer. I could tell you what my favorite Tanzanian drinks are and take you to the best beach. I had a place here. I would occasionally see a group of tourists walking by and think that I am different from them. I was in Bagamoyo for a purpose. Locals respected me because of what I was doing. I wasn’t just someone there for the beach view and historic ruins, I was there because I wanted to learn about life there.
Zanzibar has been so different from that motive and goal. I feel like a tourist. Looking around it sometimes seems like there are more wazungu (white people) than Africans. Everyone is a tourist here and that’s how the locals think of them. Suddenly I no longer have a place here. I’m back in my stereotype – a rich American. At dinner tonight, our waiter told us that he was very lucky tonight because he had 3 tables of people (including us) who tried to speak with him in Swahili. The majority of the wazungu do not care enough or take enough time to truly appreciate and respect the culture. I feel like I have lost all the progress I made in Bagamoyo. I’m back to being an American Tourist.
More than anything, I think my frustration comes from the feeling that I don’t fit in with the average American. I think I have really been changed by my time here this summer. I have different goals than the majority of the people I’m running into here. I’m not here to spend huge amounts of money, I’m here to enjoy and experience life in Zanzibar, just as I did in Bagamoyo, even though I don’t have much time here. Instead, I am finding that I have landed in a different world, one much too far from the simple life in Bagamoyo that I have come to know and love. All I really feel now is that I don’t belong here; I belong in Bagamoyo doing the things I’ve been doing for the past 10 weeks: talking to mothers, listening to the community, and seeking to understand how life can be improved for them. I’m enjoying my time on Zanzibar, but I’m also not ready to leave the place that has become home for me here. All things must come to an end, and that end has come and gone. I’m sure it will be difficult to board that plane on Wednesday, but this time on Zanzibar is proving to be a good step towards reintegration into American culture. When I set foot back in the US I know the easiest thing for me to do will be to completely reintegrate and forget the time I have spent here, but that is the one thing that I must avoid. This work in Bagamoyo is what I belong doing. What I need to focus on, is how to get back here to continue it.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
50 km Out of Town
Sorry for the delay in updating. I think what has ended up happening is that instead of both Marlene and I updating frequently, we have started to take turns writing updates. For those of you who don’t know, Marlene’s blog can be found at http://katika-imani.blogspot.com.
This past week, we went farther for our focus group than anyone in the Stanford group here has gone from Bagamoyo. Fifty kilometers straight inland. We passed by Soko Jipya, Kimara Ngombe, Mtoni, and then drove onwards. We drove past Fukayosi, the farthest village in the Stanford Group study, and then finally arrived in Kiwangwa. To our surprise, the first thing we saw was a bustling street filled with dukas (small window shops), several bars, and a bunch of piki pikis (motorcycles) lined up. It looked like it could have been some of the more secluded areas of Bagamoyo town. Certainly not like the village I had pictured though there were telltale signs that life was definitely different here. On our drive into town, we saw people towing carts full of water jugs back into the village from somewhere else. It was unclear how far they actually had to travel for their water, but apparently it was far enough that they wanted to bring lots of containers on each trip. In our focus group we learned that there were no clean sources of water in the village. Most people drank from either surface water or very shallow wells. On top of that, no one treats their water. Boiling is too much effort when they are out farming pineapples all day and other forms of water treatment are too expensive. There were even some who believed that if you weren’t used to boiled water, then drinking it could give you diarrhea!
Many of the other comments we received were similar to those we heard in other communities, but this group was much more willing to explain the ideas thoroughly. Looking through the translation of the group we have really started to be able to understand some of the insights and it has started to make me think about the overarching goal of this study and the Stanford group study. What I continue to notice is that it is not that these women don’t know they should treat their water or cover their latrine. They simply don’t have the means necessary to do it. Oftentimes we think that those in poverty just don’t know as much as those of us in the “first world.” We think of them with an attitude that focuses on what we, the educated, can teach the poor people. It isn’t that simple. Yes, there are knowledge and practices that they could learn, but we are not on a completely different level from them. We are more similar than we would like to let on sometimes. I constantly find myself thinking that I would do exactly what these women are doing if I were in their situation. If I had 7 children I wouldn’t use all the fuel necessary to boil water for all of them. If I had to choose between buying food for my family and buying a latrine cover or soap, then I’m going to take the food. When the only water source I have access to is half a day’s walk from my house, washing my hands seems like a waste of water. Is each of the 10 members of my family really supposed to wash their hands every time they use the latrine? Practices like use of communal water for hand-washing make sense. There is limited water so why not use as little as possible for hand washing?
I’m also not convinced that hand washing itself is the answer. It doesn’t necessarily clean your hands completely of germs. Even if it did, the environment here isn’t going to let those hands stay germ free for long. In the US, people don’t interact with their environment very often. We have counters to set food on, stoves to cook on, bed frames to sleep on, and in house piped water to drink. In Kiwangwa, every one of these things is on the dirt floor. You can’t touch the pot without touching the dirt around it. You can’t get water that’s clean. Everything is dirty and hand washing isn’t going to fix that fact. These people in Kiwangwa don’t need someone coming in telling them they need to wash their hands; they need someone coming in to drill a bore well.
This past week, we went farther for our focus group than anyone in the Stanford group here has gone from Bagamoyo. Fifty kilometers straight inland. We passed by Soko Jipya, Kimara Ngombe, Mtoni, and then drove onwards. We drove past Fukayosi, the farthest village in the Stanford Group study, and then finally arrived in Kiwangwa. To our surprise, the first thing we saw was a bustling street filled with dukas (small window shops), several bars, and a bunch of piki pikis (motorcycles) lined up. It looked like it could have been some of the more secluded areas of Bagamoyo town. Certainly not like the village I had pictured though there were telltale signs that life was definitely different here. On our drive into town, we saw people towing carts full of water jugs back into the village from somewhere else. It was unclear how far they actually had to travel for their water, but apparently it was far enough that they wanted to bring lots of containers on each trip. In our focus group we learned that there were no clean sources of water in the village. Most people drank from either surface water or very shallow wells. On top of that, no one treats their water. Boiling is too much effort when they are out farming pineapples all day and other forms of water treatment are too expensive. There were even some who believed that if you weren’t used to boiled water, then drinking it could give you diarrhea!
Many of the other comments we received were similar to those we heard in other communities, but this group was much more willing to explain the ideas thoroughly. Looking through the translation of the group we have really started to be able to understand some of the insights and it has started to make me think about the overarching goal of this study and the Stanford group study. What I continue to notice is that it is not that these women don’t know they should treat their water or cover their latrine. They simply don’t have the means necessary to do it. Oftentimes we think that those in poverty just don’t know as much as those of us in the “first world.” We think of them with an attitude that focuses on what we, the educated, can teach the poor people. It isn’t that simple. Yes, there are knowledge and practices that they could learn, but we are not on a completely different level from them. We are more similar than we would like to let on sometimes. I constantly find myself thinking that I would do exactly what these women are doing if I were in their situation. If I had 7 children I wouldn’t use all the fuel necessary to boil water for all of them. If I had to choose between buying food for my family and buying a latrine cover or soap, then I’m going to take the food. When the only water source I have access to is half a day’s walk from my house, washing my hands seems like a waste of water. Is each of the 10 members of my family really supposed to wash their hands every time they use the latrine? Practices like use of communal water for hand-washing make sense. There is limited water so why not use as little as possible for hand washing?
I’m also not convinced that hand washing itself is the answer. It doesn’t necessarily clean your hands completely of germs. Even if it did, the environment here isn’t going to let those hands stay germ free for long. In the US, people don’t interact with their environment very often. We have counters to set food on, stoves to cook on, bed frames to sleep on, and in house piped water to drink. In Kiwangwa, every one of these things is on the dirt floor. You can’t touch the pot without touching the dirt around it. You can’t get water that’s clean. Everything is dirty and hand washing isn’t going to fix that fact. These people in Kiwangwa don’t need someone coming in telling them they need to wash their hands; they need someone coming in to drill a bore well.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Routines, Routines
Looking back to my last posts, I have noticed that I really have not been very good about posting in Tanzania. I’m not going to try to rationalize, but I want to apologize for not posting as much news as I have in the past. There is something about settling into a routine that makes it hard to write interesting posts all the time. As routines go, it is pretty boring, so I’ll start off this post with the interesting things I did this weekend and those who are really committed can read about the routine at the end.
After getting a little stir crazy from being cooped up in the house or in the office working for the week, Marlene and I decided that we needed to get out and do something fun. After sleeping off the exhaustion for the week, we took a bike ride south from Bagamoyo to Kaole to visit the ancient ruins that reside there. Kaole was one of the first settlements by the Arabs in East Africa and dates back to approximately the 13th century. Kaole houses the ruins of the first mosque in East Africa and numerous other structures from this time period. There were many elaborate raised grave structures surrounding the mosque and the foundation of a house nearby. A guide took us around the ruins the entire time and explained a little bit about the history in pretty good English. He took us down to what was the first port in East Africa, but if he hadn’t said it, I would have had no idea. You couldn’t even see the ocean through the forest of mangrove trees that had grown there.
Down by the “port,” a group of locals from Kaole were collecting shellfish and boiling them. They were sitting on an enormous pile of shells. It reminded me of so much of what I learned about in my archeology class in Cape Town. Ancient humans used to collect specific types of shellfish for food and then bring them back to their dwelling where they would either heat them, or break the shell and leave piles of shells known as shell middens. It’s really interesting to see a modern day shell midden because this lifestyle is apparently not completely dead. I have to wonder what some archeologist a thousand years from now will think about the shell midden if they found it!
Visiting these ancient ruins was such a fun adventure. It amazes me how different this site would be run if in America. People are allowed to roam free among the ruins with nothing to prevent them from walking on, over, and through them. The only sign we saw indicating rules ‘advised’ guests not to climb on them. So much of this history has already been lost, but unfortunately with the current rules and maintenance, I don’t think this will last as long as it would if properly preserved. That is not the African way though, and it doesn’t get so much traffic that it is a problem. It was good to see groups of Tanzanian students visiting the ruins on field trips. I’m glad that they are learning about their history and I hope that they can learn to be proud of their country.
After we got back from the ruins, we had a relaxing afternoon before heading to a music festival that was in town at the local arts college. It was a competition between bands from much of East Africa and they ranged in talent immensely. Some of the guest bands were just incredible. All of the band members were under 21 in all of the groups because it was meant to showcase up and coming talent. This one guest band from South Africa was particularly great. They played a mix of drumming and Jazz with a tenor saxophone as the featured instrument. Then there were other guest bands that were just kind of interesting. This group of 15 year olds from Belgium came on stage and looked just like any high school band. The guitarist then began to just tear it up. All of the instruments were played extremely well, but the band could probably have chosen a better vocalist. It was still very strange to see a group of white, high school age Belgians playing for a crowd of Tanzanians.
Instead of staying at the concert all night, Marlene and I ducked out and went to have dinner together. We ate at the Bagamoyo Country Club (which isn’t much like a country club, but is a nice place nonetheless). When we arrived, we found that they had placed us at a candlelit table right next to the ocean. We both ordered steak (our only chance for meat is on the weekends) and just sat to enjoy each other and this magnificent venue. I couldn’t help wondering if I was really still in Africa or at some nice resort. It was quite a special evening and a well needed break from work. Our professor arrived late Saturday night and that meant that we had to work all Sunday with her, but Saturday was enough rest for a long time.
Ok. That was the fun part, now things get boring…
Proceed at your own risk of wanting to fall asleep from boredom.
My week usually starts pretty slowly (this week being the exception) on Monday morning because our enumerators don’t work Mondays. They only work 4 days a week (Tuesday through Friday) due to budget constraints and so our Mondays are usually spent running errands or getting things ready for when they do arrive. It’s really nice to not have a jarring Monday morning. It is almost as if the weekend just extends a little bit further into the week. Tuesday through Thursday are spent working with the enumerators on transcribing the focus group recording and then translating the entire group. It usually takes them about a day and a half to transcribe and translate one group which works out perfectly in our 4 day schedule because on Friday we hold two focus groups in the same village. We wake up early and travel by foot or by taxi to the place we will work for the day and start gathering the participants when we arrive. Our first group is usually supposed to start at 10 am, though the past two weeks the start time has been about an hour late. After an hour and a half of talking, most people are pretty tired and we will send them on their way. Lunch is next on the agenda and we usually eat and discuss the group with our enumerators. One of them has taken a liking to bringing food for the group, so we have gotten some very good local food! After lunch, we try to start the next group at 1 pm, though this time is also flexible like the morning. When we are finished with this second group, we head back to the office in town and translate the notes from each group so that we have some information to go on for the weekend. After this long last day of work, we head off to the weekend.
This is the routine we have been settling into over the past several weeks and it seems to be working out pretty well, though things have been thrown off at various points, and as much as you try to make it an actual routine, there always seems to be something in the way. Two weeks ago, for example, there was a national holiday on Wednesday called Saba Saba (7/7) which we had not remembered. As a result, we gave the enumerators the day off, only to figure out that we didn’t have enough work the next week to have them make up the day, so we ended up working Monday-Wednesday and then Friday last week because we ran out of work for them to do. This week, we switched back to the normal work days, but our partner organization is planning an introductory meeting (a little late for that) for this Friday. I’m still not convinced this meeting is actually going to take place, but it means that we’re doing our focus groups in Mapinga this Thursday instead.
After getting a little stir crazy from being cooped up in the house or in the office working for the week, Marlene and I decided that we needed to get out and do something fun. After sleeping off the exhaustion for the week, we took a bike ride south from Bagamoyo to Kaole to visit the ancient ruins that reside there. Kaole was one of the first settlements by the Arabs in East Africa and dates back to approximately the 13th century. Kaole houses the ruins of the first mosque in East Africa and numerous other structures from this time period. There were many elaborate raised grave structures surrounding the mosque and the foundation of a house nearby. A guide took us around the ruins the entire time and explained a little bit about the history in pretty good English. He took us down to what was the first port in East Africa, but if he hadn’t said it, I would have had no idea. You couldn’t even see the ocean through the forest of mangrove trees that had grown there.
Down by the “port,” a group of locals from Kaole were collecting shellfish and boiling them. They were sitting on an enormous pile of shells. It reminded me of so much of what I learned about in my archeology class in Cape Town. Ancient humans used to collect specific types of shellfish for food and then bring them back to their dwelling where they would either heat them, or break the shell and leave piles of shells known as shell middens. It’s really interesting to see a modern day shell midden because this lifestyle is apparently not completely dead. I have to wonder what some archeologist a thousand years from now will think about the shell midden if they found it!
Visiting these ancient ruins was such a fun adventure. It amazes me how different this site would be run if in America. People are allowed to roam free among the ruins with nothing to prevent them from walking on, over, and through them. The only sign we saw indicating rules ‘advised’ guests not to climb on them. So much of this history has already been lost, but unfortunately with the current rules and maintenance, I don’t think this will last as long as it would if properly preserved. That is not the African way though, and it doesn’t get so much traffic that it is a problem. It was good to see groups of Tanzanian students visiting the ruins on field trips. I’m glad that they are learning about their history and I hope that they can learn to be proud of their country.
After we got back from the ruins, we had a relaxing afternoon before heading to a music festival that was in town at the local arts college. It was a competition between bands from much of East Africa and they ranged in talent immensely. Some of the guest bands were just incredible. All of the band members were under 21 in all of the groups because it was meant to showcase up and coming talent. This one guest band from South Africa was particularly great. They played a mix of drumming and Jazz with a tenor saxophone as the featured instrument. Then there were other guest bands that were just kind of interesting. This group of 15 year olds from Belgium came on stage and looked just like any high school band. The guitarist then began to just tear it up. All of the instruments were played extremely well, but the band could probably have chosen a better vocalist. It was still very strange to see a group of white, high school age Belgians playing for a crowd of Tanzanians.
Instead of staying at the concert all night, Marlene and I ducked out and went to have dinner together. We ate at the Bagamoyo Country Club (which isn’t much like a country club, but is a nice place nonetheless). When we arrived, we found that they had placed us at a candlelit table right next to the ocean. We both ordered steak (our only chance for meat is on the weekends) and just sat to enjoy each other and this magnificent venue. I couldn’t help wondering if I was really still in Africa or at some nice resort. It was quite a special evening and a well needed break from work. Our professor arrived late Saturday night and that meant that we had to work all Sunday with her, but Saturday was enough rest for a long time.
Ok. That was the fun part, now things get boring…
Proceed at your own risk of wanting to fall asleep from boredom.
My week usually starts pretty slowly (this week being the exception) on Monday morning because our enumerators don’t work Mondays. They only work 4 days a week (Tuesday through Friday) due to budget constraints and so our Mondays are usually spent running errands or getting things ready for when they do arrive. It’s really nice to not have a jarring Monday morning. It is almost as if the weekend just extends a little bit further into the week. Tuesday through Thursday are spent working with the enumerators on transcribing the focus group recording and then translating the entire group. It usually takes them about a day and a half to transcribe and translate one group which works out perfectly in our 4 day schedule because on Friday we hold two focus groups in the same village. We wake up early and travel by foot or by taxi to the place we will work for the day and start gathering the participants when we arrive. Our first group is usually supposed to start at 10 am, though the past two weeks the start time has been about an hour late. After an hour and a half of talking, most people are pretty tired and we will send them on their way. Lunch is next on the agenda and we usually eat and discuss the group with our enumerators. One of them has taken a liking to bringing food for the group, so we have gotten some very good local food! After lunch, we try to start the next group at 1 pm, though this time is also flexible like the morning. When we are finished with this second group, we head back to the office in town and translate the notes from each group so that we have some information to go on for the weekend. After this long last day of work, we head off to the weekend.
This is the routine we have been settling into over the past several weeks and it seems to be working out pretty well, though things have been thrown off at various points, and as much as you try to make it an actual routine, there always seems to be something in the way. Two weeks ago, for example, there was a national holiday on Wednesday called Saba Saba (7/7) which we had not remembered. As a result, we gave the enumerators the day off, only to figure out that we didn’t have enough work the next week to have them make up the day, so we ended up working Monday-Wednesday and then Friday last week because we ran out of work for them to do. This week, we switched back to the normal work days, but our partner organization is planning an introductory meeting (a little late for that) for this Friday. I’m still not convinced this meeting is actually going to take place, but it means that we’re doing our focus groups in Mapinga this Thursday instead.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
The First “Focus Group”
Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. I would have put this up sometime over the weekend, but all of the internet in Tanzania was down for several days. This is the first chance I have had on the internet in awhile, so here's the post I wrote several days ago...
Spending time here in Tanzania has been great so far. I think one of the things about it is that you don’t really begin to understand what life is like here until you try to actually make something happen. Doing research in the US is relatively straightforward. You can plan things and they will most likely go according to plan (or deviate in rather minor ways). Last minute fixes may be necessary, but very rarely do things go completely out of control. In Tanzania, there aren’t many places to go if things don’t quite work out. It’s not as easy as running to the store quickly to get something that was forgotten. If you run looking for a store in the first village we worked in, you will likely end up in marshy rice fields with crocodiles.
We held our first ‘focus group’ on this past Friday morning, and it was such a crazy experience. Our plan was to have this type of focused discussion with about 10 mothers of young children. The group was planned in advance with the local village health workers who were supposed to recruit the participants. We brought the correct number of gifts (soap packets and money for sodas) for the participants plus a few extra in case we had 12 participants instead of 10. As we were walking out the door of the house on our way to the group, Marlene mentioned that we should probably bring a little extra money just in case we needed it for anything. I didn’t realize at that moment how glad I would be later that she said that.
After stopping at the research office to gather our two enumerators, we drove off towards the village about 20 km from the center of Bagamoyo. The road was all sand and in very poor condition forcing us to move rather slowly the entire time. By the end, the road was surrounded by marshes that served as rice fields. It was pretty clear that this village would be unreachable during the rainy season as the road would be entirely submerged in water. Right in the middle of all the marshes was a small tightly packed village where we were to hold our focus group. As we drove up, we met the village health workers who ushered us into this covered area outside where the focus group would take place. When we arrived (half an hour after the group was supposed to start) the participants were just arriving. As they slowly piled in, it looked like it would be a good group. They came slowly and when there were about 15 mothers, it appeared to slow a little bit. I remarked to Marlene that this was a big group. If only I had known. More and more mothers kept coming, with two or three children in tow per mother. By the time they had stopped coming, we had more than 50 mothers and probably 80 or more children. This is where planning goes out the window. Apparently the village health workers or the village leader had invited every mother in the village. With more than 50 mothers, it is impossible to run a focus group. I thought it was going to be worthless and that we would not get any information from the group. Surprisingly, as mothers got settled and some left for lack of seating, the group calmed down and we had a really interesting discussion. There was nowhere to buy soap to give the group, but we did end up buying 48 sodas for them to drink. I was really glad that we brought the extra money.
Despite all the chaos and last minute confusion, it worked out. I think something I’m learning about Tanzania is that this is just how things work. Everything is organized at the last minute and you have to be flexible. Something will always go wrong and so you better be able to work without anything that you would like to have. The lifestyle here revolves around not planning in advance and taking life as it comes to you. It’s much different than I’m used to, but at the same time it is kind of relaxing to see that even when things can’t be planned to the finest detail, they work out. Being here is helping me to let go of my vice-like grip on planning in favor of taking each day one at a time.
Spending time here in Tanzania has been great so far. I think one of the things about it is that you don’t really begin to understand what life is like here until you try to actually make something happen. Doing research in the US is relatively straightforward. You can plan things and they will most likely go according to plan (or deviate in rather minor ways). Last minute fixes may be necessary, but very rarely do things go completely out of control. In Tanzania, there aren’t many places to go if things don’t quite work out. It’s not as easy as running to the store quickly to get something that was forgotten. If you run looking for a store in the first village we worked in, you will likely end up in marshy rice fields with crocodiles.
We held our first ‘focus group’ on this past Friday morning, and it was such a crazy experience. Our plan was to have this type of focused discussion with about 10 mothers of young children. The group was planned in advance with the local village health workers who were supposed to recruit the participants. We brought the correct number of gifts (soap packets and money for sodas) for the participants plus a few extra in case we had 12 participants instead of 10. As we were walking out the door of the house on our way to the group, Marlene mentioned that we should probably bring a little extra money just in case we needed it for anything. I didn’t realize at that moment how glad I would be later that she said that.
After stopping at the research office to gather our two enumerators, we drove off towards the village about 20 km from the center of Bagamoyo. The road was all sand and in very poor condition forcing us to move rather slowly the entire time. By the end, the road was surrounded by marshes that served as rice fields. It was pretty clear that this village would be unreachable during the rainy season as the road would be entirely submerged in water. Right in the middle of all the marshes was a small tightly packed village where we were to hold our focus group. As we drove up, we met the village health workers who ushered us into this covered area outside where the focus group would take place. When we arrived (half an hour after the group was supposed to start) the participants were just arriving. As they slowly piled in, it looked like it would be a good group. They came slowly and when there were about 15 mothers, it appeared to slow a little bit. I remarked to Marlene that this was a big group. If only I had known. More and more mothers kept coming, with two or three children in tow per mother. By the time they had stopped coming, we had more than 50 mothers and probably 80 or more children. This is where planning goes out the window. Apparently the village health workers or the village leader had invited every mother in the village. With more than 50 mothers, it is impossible to run a focus group. I thought it was going to be worthless and that we would not get any information from the group. Surprisingly, as mothers got settled and some left for lack of seating, the group calmed down and we had a really interesting discussion. There was nowhere to buy soap to give the group, but we did end up buying 48 sodas for them to drink. I was really glad that we brought the extra money.
Despite all the chaos and last minute confusion, it worked out. I think something I’m learning about Tanzania is that this is just how things work. Everything is organized at the last minute and you have to be flexible. Something will always go wrong and so you better be able to work without anything that you would like to have. The lifestyle here revolves around not planning in advance and taking life as it comes to you. It’s much different than I’m used to, but at the same time it is kind of relaxing to see that even when things can’t be planned to the finest detail, they work out. Being here is helping me to let go of my vice-like grip on planning in favor of taking each day one at a time.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The End of June and Time is Flying By
I’ve been in Tanzania now for 17 days, but it doesn’t feel that way at all. I keep going back and forth between thinking I’ve been here forever, and thinking that I’ve just arrived. After spending so long in Cape Town, my time here has been relatively short so far. I’m still just starting to get a sense of the place I’m in. There are things about Bagamoyo that I am just beginning to taste. Some of these are literally tastes. This past week I have started venturing out and purchasing food from ‘restaurants’ and street vendors along the road. One of the common things I have been eating is chipsi mayai. Basically, they take fries and cook them in a frying pan with an egg. The dish is then typically served with a mix of tomato sauce (fake ketchup) and some kind of spicy sauce (which is not that spicy). You typically eat the dish with two toothpicks, which is not an easy task, and inevitably the food touches your dirty hands and life goes on. Today Marlene and I tried a new addition. We went to the market and purchased all the ingredients for guacamole! I’ve really been missing any kind of food that is like Mexican food and so this was a real treat. The first adventure was trying to find fresh vegetables that looked like they hadn’t been sitting outside with the flies for too long. We washed the vegetables off before using them, but the wash water was also questionable. Hopefully all is ok. The guacamole was great though and really complemented the chipsi mayai.
As I’ve been adjusting to living here, these simple dishes are becoming normal. I’m getting used to the piki pikis (motorcycles) driving by all the time carrying passengers throughout town. I have a good sense of the layout of the town and I would feel comfortable walking anywhere here. Some of the people along the road to our research office know my name now. One particular group of painters is always very friendly with us. They are led by a man called Rasti, though as Marlene mentioned in her blog – his real name is David. He and his group of painters are Rastafarian and just sit all day painting, giving lessons, and just relaxing in the shade. Our conversations with them really demonstrate the nature of greeting here and so I want to go through our basic conversation with you.
Me: Mambo!
Rasti: Poa sana. Karibuni.
Me: Asante. Habari za asubuhi?
Rasti: Safi sana. Habari za kazi?
Me: Nzuri sana
…
5 minutes later:
Rasti: Karibuni sana.
Me: Asante sana. Baadaye.
Rasti: Siku njema.
Me: Siku njema!
Rasti: Baadaye!
Translation:
Me: How’s it going?
Rasti: Very cool. Welcome.
Me: Thank you. How is the morning?
Rasti: Very fresh. How is your work?
Me: Very Good.
…
5 minutes later:
Rasti: You are very welcome.
Me: Thank you very much. Later.
Rasti: Have a good day.
Me: Have a good day!
Rasti: Later!
Basically, it’s a game to see who can think of more greetings to say to make the other person respond. This isn’t just in conversations with Rasti; pretty much everyone just keeps greeting each other for several minutes before they get to the point. And, it is possible to have very pleasant conversations with people saying nothing but greetings. It’s kind of a cool cultural phenomenon.
Knowing these types of things makes me feel like I have been here for awhile. People in the community know who I am already. I’m not just a tourist (which you can pick out from a mile away). I’m still a mzungu, but the people who know me know that I’m doing research here and not just here because the Indian Ocean is a 5 minute walk from the house. I’m comfortable here now, which is a great. It’s amazing to think that I have just 8 weeks left in Tanzania.
Research is going well so far though. We have had two days of training with our enumerators this week and our first focus group will be on Friday. As we were discussing the questions for the groups with them, a couple really interesting insights came up. Basically, the whole goal of the larger project is to reach mothers with interventions that will improve the health of their children. Ideally, if the mother washed her hands more often, then the kid would as well. Our enumerators’ statements questioned this idea. There seems to be a huge disconnect between the hygiene expected of children and that expected of adults. The adults are expected to wash their hands before eating and some of them do, but children are not expected to meet the same standard. In addition, what was most surprising is that the feces of children are seen much differently than the feces of an adult. Adults are always expected to defecate in the latrine. Their feces are considered dirty and they will often wash their hands afterwards as well. The feces of young children, however, are not considered dirty. They will often not be placed in the latrine. If they are placed in the latrine, then the wash water from diapers will likely not be placed there. Instead, this water is not seen as dirty and will be spread in the garden or nearby the house. To compound matters, research shows that child feces are actually the most dangerous for children and will cause much more disease. Hearing this information was shocking and we are now including questions about differences in child versus adult hygiene in the focus group. I’m really excited that we’ll have some very interesting responses that will be able to help out in prevention measures in the future.
Hope that this post can fill some of the gaps in my writing. I’ll try to post after the focus group on Friday to let you know how it goes!
As I’ve been adjusting to living here, these simple dishes are becoming normal. I’m getting used to the piki pikis (motorcycles) driving by all the time carrying passengers throughout town. I have a good sense of the layout of the town and I would feel comfortable walking anywhere here. Some of the people along the road to our research office know my name now. One particular group of painters is always very friendly with us. They are led by a man called Rasti, though as Marlene mentioned in her blog – his real name is David. He and his group of painters are Rastafarian and just sit all day painting, giving lessons, and just relaxing in the shade. Our conversations with them really demonstrate the nature of greeting here and so I want to go through our basic conversation with you.
Me: Mambo!
Rasti: Poa sana. Karibuni.
Me: Asante. Habari za asubuhi?
Rasti: Safi sana. Habari za kazi?
Me: Nzuri sana
…
5 minutes later:
Rasti: Karibuni sana.
Me: Asante sana. Baadaye.
Rasti: Siku njema.
Me: Siku njema!
Rasti: Baadaye!
Translation:
Me: How’s it going?
Rasti: Very cool. Welcome.
Me: Thank you. How is the morning?
Rasti: Very fresh. How is your work?
Me: Very Good.
…
5 minutes later:
Rasti: You are very welcome.
Me: Thank you very much. Later.
Rasti: Have a good day.
Me: Have a good day!
Rasti: Later!
Basically, it’s a game to see who can think of more greetings to say to make the other person respond. This isn’t just in conversations with Rasti; pretty much everyone just keeps greeting each other for several minutes before they get to the point. And, it is possible to have very pleasant conversations with people saying nothing but greetings. It’s kind of a cool cultural phenomenon.
Knowing these types of things makes me feel like I have been here for awhile. People in the community know who I am already. I’m not just a tourist (which you can pick out from a mile away). I’m still a mzungu, but the people who know me know that I’m doing research here and not just here because the Indian Ocean is a 5 minute walk from the house. I’m comfortable here now, which is a great. It’s amazing to think that I have just 8 weeks left in Tanzania.
Research is going well so far though. We have had two days of training with our enumerators this week and our first focus group will be on Friday. As we were discussing the questions for the groups with them, a couple really interesting insights came up. Basically, the whole goal of the larger project is to reach mothers with interventions that will improve the health of their children. Ideally, if the mother washed her hands more often, then the kid would as well. Our enumerators’ statements questioned this idea. There seems to be a huge disconnect between the hygiene expected of children and that expected of adults. The adults are expected to wash their hands before eating and some of them do, but children are not expected to meet the same standard. In addition, what was most surprising is that the feces of children are seen much differently than the feces of an adult. Adults are always expected to defecate in the latrine. Their feces are considered dirty and they will often wash their hands afterwards as well. The feces of young children, however, are not considered dirty. They will often not be placed in the latrine. If they are placed in the latrine, then the wash water from diapers will likely not be placed there. Instead, this water is not seen as dirty and will be spread in the garden or nearby the house. To compound matters, research shows that child feces are actually the most dangerous for children and will cause much more disease. Hearing this information was shocking and we are now including questions about differences in child versus adult hygiene in the focus group. I’m really excited that we’ll have some very interesting responses that will be able to help out in prevention measures in the future.
Hope that this post can fill some of the gaps in my writing. I’ll try to post after the focus group on Friday to let you know how it goes!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Getting Settled After Adventuring
As you can probably tell, I haven’t updated my blog very much since getting to Tanzania. This has been a function of my limited internet access and the fact that I have been traveling all over the country. Marlene covered the travels in pretty good detail on her blog, but I want to cover some of the details and then focus on where I am now.
After Marlene and I arrived, we spent several days in Dar doing some work to prepare for our time here such as getting SIM cards for our phones and a modem for internet. Traveling around Dar was quite hectic and quite an experience. It was a little bit crazier than in Cape Town mostly because I didn’t understand the language and pretty much the entire city (and country) operates on the barter system. In Cape Town we would usually get taxis that were metered, but here you have to barter based on where you are going. The prices for items are not listed in most stores and these items are up for barter as well. This would be fine if I knew more of the language, but it has made my time a little crazy. Fortunately, Marlene is very competent in these situations and can speak enough Swahili to get a decent price. I’m slowly learning Swahili – I think I know the numbers pretty well now – and I’m using the Rosetta Stone program as well as my experience to try to improve.
After our time in Dar, we took a 12 hour bus ride out to Arusha so that we could go on a safari for 3 days. It was definitely a fun adventure. I’ve actually been on 3 days of safari previously so I have seen many of the animals, but this trip was really fun to do with Marlene. Some of the animals and views were also much more spectacular than in Botswana. I had seen 4 of the Big 5 animals before (Elephant, Buffalo, Lion, and Leopard), but this time I had the awesome opportunity to see the Rhino in the wild. In Ngorongoro Crater where we were for the middle day there are 15 rhinos left and we got to see both a mother and baby. It was awesome to see, but also sad to realize that this majestic species may not survive much longer. We also got to see a cheetah here which was really cool. It actually stood up and went into this tall grass towards a herd of zebra and wildebeest. We were really excited because we thought it was about to hunt, but as we drove quickly over in hopes of seeing the hunt, our guide said that there probably weren’t enough small animals in the herd for it to hunt. We were approaching the end of our time in the park as well and were forced to rush away to get out of the park before it closed. The next day we had the opportunity to see the biggest herds of elephants I’ve ever witnessed. I saw probably more than 100 elephants in Tarangire National Park. We got charged by one of them which had gotten angry at us for no reason at all. Our guide actually panicked a little bit, but as soon as we started driving the elephant stopped charging. I have a great picture of the elephant as it is starting to charge which I will try to post soon. It gave us quite the scare and got our hearts pumping, but in retrospect it was a really cool experience. Later in the day, though, when we rounded a corner to see an enormous solitary male elephant walking towards us down the road, we decided that we would back up and let it pass. Rather not risk being charged again.
We were pretty exhausted after the safari and decided that we would spend an extra day in Arusha instead of taking the bus back right away the next day. It was a great decision and we just had a chance to get some energy back before our work starts. Our trip back to Dar by bus was long and uneventful again and we pretty much stayed in the hotel before taking the trip up to Bagamoyo yesterday.
So now I’m where we’ll be working for the duration of the summer in Bagamoyo. The past two days have been spent getting acclimated to the town. Our house is pretty large and will be housing a total of 8 people this summer. The town itself is relatively rural. Most of the roads are dirt here. There is actually some interesting history here – this town used to be the German capital of Tanzania. Old ruins of the German buildings litter the town. It feels old. One of the coolest things about this town though, is that it is right on the coast of the Indian Ocean. If you look out the window from the research office we’ll be working in, you can see the coastline. As a result, there is also a nice breeze which helps temper the heat.
I’ve settled into my room by now and I’m really ready to start working on the research for this summer. I can already tell that I’ll be very busy with everything, but I’m encouraged that there is definitely support from the larger project. Intensive planning began today and will continue up until the focus groups are completed. I’ll let you know more about everything as it approaches and my updates should be slightly more regular now that things have settled down a little bit.
After Marlene and I arrived, we spent several days in Dar doing some work to prepare for our time here such as getting SIM cards for our phones and a modem for internet. Traveling around Dar was quite hectic and quite an experience. It was a little bit crazier than in Cape Town mostly because I didn’t understand the language and pretty much the entire city (and country) operates on the barter system. In Cape Town we would usually get taxis that were metered, but here you have to barter based on where you are going. The prices for items are not listed in most stores and these items are up for barter as well. This would be fine if I knew more of the language, but it has made my time a little crazy. Fortunately, Marlene is very competent in these situations and can speak enough Swahili to get a decent price. I’m slowly learning Swahili – I think I know the numbers pretty well now – and I’m using the Rosetta Stone program as well as my experience to try to improve.
After our time in Dar, we took a 12 hour bus ride out to Arusha so that we could go on a safari for 3 days. It was definitely a fun adventure. I’ve actually been on 3 days of safari previously so I have seen many of the animals, but this trip was really fun to do with Marlene. Some of the animals and views were also much more spectacular than in Botswana. I had seen 4 of the Big 5 animals before (Elephant, Buffalo, Lion, and Leopard), but this time I had the awesome opportunity to see the Rhino in the wild. In Ngorongoro Crater where we were for the middle day there are 15 rhinos left and we got to see both a mother and baby. It was awesome to see, but also sad to realize that this majestic species may not survive much longer. We also got to see a cheetah here which was really cool. It actually stood up and went into this tall grass towards a herd of zebra and wildebeest. We were really excited because we thought it was about to hunt, but as we drove quickly over in hopes of seeing the hunt, our guide said that there probably weren’t enough small animals in the herd for it to hunt. We were approaching the end of our time in the park as well and were forced to rush away to get out of the park before it closed. The next day we had the opportunity to see the biggest herds of elephants I’ve ever witnessed. I saw probably more than 100 elephants in Tarangire National Park. We got charged by one of them which had gotten angry at us for no reason at all. Our guide actually panicked a little bit, but as soon as we started driving the elephant stopped charging. I have a great picture of the elephant as it is starting to charge which I will try to post soon. It gave us quite the scare and got our hearts pumping, but in retrospect it was a really cool experience. Later in the day, though, when we rounded a corner to see an enormous solitary male elephant walking towards us down the road, we decided that we would back up and let it pass. Rather not risk being charged again.
We were pretty exhausted after the safari and decided that we would spend an extra day in Arusha instead of taking the bus back right away the next day. It was a great decision and we just had a chance to get some energy back before our work starts. Our trip back to Dar by bus was long and uneventful again and we pretty much stayed in the hotel before taking the trip up to Bagamoyo yesterday.
So now I’m where we’ll be working for the duration of the summer in Bagamoyo. The past two days have been spent getting acclimated to the town. Our house is pretty large and will be housing a total of 8 people this summer. The town itself is relatively rural. Most of the roads are dirt here. There is actually some interesting history here – this town used to be the German capital of Tanzania. Old ruins of the German buildings litter the town. It feels old. One of the coolest things about this town though, is that it is right on the coast of the Indian Ocean. If you look out the window from the research office we’ll be working in, you can see the coastline. As a result, there is also a nice breeze which helps temper the heat.
I’ve settled into my room by now and I’m really ready to start working on the research for this summer. I can already tell that I’ll be very busy with everything, but I’m encouraged that there is definitely support from the larger project. Intensive planning began today and will continue up until the focus groups are completed. I’ll let you know more about everything as it approaches and my updates should be slightly more regular now that things have settled down a little bit.
Monday, June 14, 2010
A New Beginning
As quickly as it came, my time in South Africa went. It was such a blast while it lasted and I know that I will miss some of what I experienced there, friends in particular (Hats off to Japan if you’re reading this Ken), but I am ready to move on to the next stage of my adventure. I landed in Tanzania yesterday afternoon, stepping off the plane into sweltering heat. My plane and Marlene’s plane actually pulled in at the exact same time and so I got to meet Marlene before we even went through customs in the Dar Es Salaam Airport! It was great to be able to get together with her because the customs situation was quite unclear. First, they had all 300 people who had just gotten off planes wait and fill out forms in this tiny little cramped space. Then, we proceeded to hand our passports along with these forms to a women at the counter along with the visa fee - $100 in cash and newer than 2006 – and then wait for our name to be called. From there we could literally grab our bags and walk out of the airport without being stopped. Clearly airport security in this country is not a very high priority.
What I saw when I got outside and during my time here so far has made me realize how different Tanzania is from South Africa. I thought I had seen the third world in my time in Cape Town and Botswana, but this is nothing like what I’ve experienced before. The infrastructure here is so far behind both countries I have been in previously. The ride to our hostel from the airport and all the car trips we have been on up to this point have taken us much longer than they needed to because the roads are in terrible condition and there is too much traffic to actually get anywhere quickly. At some points I wonder if it is even worth taking a taxi because we can literally walk as fast as the flow of traffic most of the time. I guess sitting in a taxi is a relief from walking in the scorching heat. It’s almost not worth taking a shower here because you start to sweat as soon as you get out. Walking along outside has also given me the opportunity to see the excellent water and sanitation that this country has to offer. Along both sides of the road our hostel is on are long pools of water/sewage that is just sitting stagnant. Looks like prime mosquito habitat. I have to make sure to take my malaria pills now. In addition to these puddles of sewage, as we were driving downtown today we went through one section that was completely submerged by water. Taking a quick glance around, I saw that the source was a ruptured sewage pipe which was still gushing. I guess this is why I came here to work on a water and sanitation project.
It is weird to be here now, because I suddenly feel like I don’t have a good sense of my surroundings anymore. Spending so much time in Cape Town helped me to become comfortable getting around. I knew the neighborhood, the transportation, and knew where to get things I need. Here, I feel lost. Most people only speak Swahili here and so suddenly my most important asset is missing. The currency is new and I don’t have a sense of that yet either. I think much of the next month is going to be spent learning some basic Swahili and getting to know what life in Tanzania is like. I was expecting this to be a different experience from Cape Town, but I have already been blown away by just how different it is. I’m excited to see what these next three months bring and to see an entirely different side of the third world.
For those of you that have been following diligently (or every once in awhile), I will continue to update my blog. I should have relatively reliable internet here as well so I will post as often as I can. Marlene is also keeping up her blog on the trip, so if I haven’t posted one day you should check her blog to see her take on everything we’re experiencing. I hope all of you are having a great start to your summers and I pray that they aren’t as hot as Tanzania!
What I saw when I got outside and during my time here so far has made me realize how different Tanzania is from South Africa. I thought I had seen the third world in my time in Cape Town and Botswana, but this is nothing like what I’ve experienced before. The infrastructure here is so far behind both countries I have been in previously. The ride to our hostel from the airport and all the car trips we have been on up to this point have taken us much longer than they needed to because the roads are in terrible condition and there is too much traffic to actually get anywhere quickly. At some points I wonder if it is even worth taking a taxi because we can literally walk as fast as the flow of traffic most of the time. I guess sitting in a taxi is a relief from walking in the scorching heat. It’s almost not worth taking a shower here because you start to sweat as soon as you get out. Walking along outside has also given me the opportunity to see the excellent water and sanitation that this country has to offer. Along both sides of the road our hostel is on are long pools of water/sewage that is just sitting stagnant. Looks like prime mosquito habitat. I have to make sure to take my malaria pills now. In addition to these puddles of sewage, as we were driving downtown today we went through one section that was completely submerged by water. Taking a quick glance around, I saw that the source was a ruptured sewage pipe which was still gushing. I guess this is why I came here to work on a water and sanitation project.
It is weird to be here now, because I suddenly feel like I don’t have a good sense of my surroundings anymore. Spending so much time in Cape Town helped me to become comfortable getting around. I knew the neighborhood, the transportation, and knew where to get things I need. Here, I feel lost. Most people only speak Swahili here and so suddenly my most important asset is missing. The currency is new and I don’t have a sense of that yet either. I think much of the next month is going to be spent learning some basic Swahili and getting to know what life in Tanzania is like. I was expecting this to be a different experience from Cape Town, but I have already been blown away by just how different it is. I’m excited to see what these next three months bring and to see an entirely different side of the third world.
For those of you that have been following diligently (or every once in awhile), I will continue to update my blog. I should have relatively reliable internet here as well so I will post as often as I can. Marlene is also keeping up her blog on the trip, so if I haven’t posted one day you should check her blog to see her take on everything we’re experiencing. I hope all of you are having a great start to your summers and I pray that they aren’t as hot as Tanzania!
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