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!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
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!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
The End is Near
Five minutes ago, I turned in my last paper to finish this quarter’s academic work. I’m done with my junior year and 5 days from the end of my time in Cape Town. I don’t know if words can describe what my time here has been like. I hope that this blog has given you a window into my experiences and that you have learned through them. I don’t know quite how to debrief my experiences other than to keep building on what I see and hear these last few days. Here it goes…
For the first time in weeks, I was actually distressed by a malnourished child. At the same time, my feelings were much different than they were with the first underweight children I saw here. This little girl was probably the worst I have seen in my life. Ever. She was 4 years and 9 months old and yet weighed just 6.1 kg. That’s just about 13.5 pounds. The child had fetal alcohol syndrome, a heart problem, a burn mark all down her chest probably from boiling water, and several other conditions that I couldn’t catch from the community health workers from Philani. It was a heartbreaking scene to watch as this little girl, not much bigger than many babies in the US, walked around gingerly and looked as if she would just fall over. I found my thoughts moving away from hope, rather than towards it. This little girl has very little hope of success in life. Her growth was stunted very young and with that she undoubtedly has many developmental issues. She will likely live out the rest of her life sick without the ability to have an education. She is stuck. Not by her own choice, but by choices outside her control. Seeing this picture unfold before my eyes made me realize that I have come to view this as the norm in these communities. I’m no longer surprised by stories like this; I get surprised when I see a healthy child. I automatically assume that if the child is healthy then the parents must be wealthy. The child must not live in a township, or if they do they must be in a nice home. I have spent my time here trying to see that everyone is equal and should have an equal right to work and health and everything, but I have ended up with an attitude that makes harsh assumptions based on the wellbeing of the child. I guess this has happened because most of the time, I’m right.
Life is not equal and it is certainly not fair. Money does matter here. There are no easy fixes. You cannot donate $50 to an organization and expect to change anything substantial. If you want to get into this, you have to dive in head first willing to give up far more than your money, or your time. You have to lose a part of yourself to this work, but mostly to the people. It is the people who matter in all of this. We get so caught up in the circumstances that we don’t stop to hear the stories along the way. So often we actually find that the stories actually show us the way. This little girl is a person who is worth caring for, not just a disappointing, hopeless project. Everything has hope, even if life isn’t fair and money matters. For people there is always hope. For this little girl, there is a life that is worth living.
For the first time in weeks, I was actually distressed by a malnourished child. At the same time, my feelings were much different than they were with the first underweight children I saw here. This little girl was probably the worst I have seen in my life. Ever. She was 4 years and 9 months old and yet weighed just 6.1 kg. That’s just about 13.5 pounds. The child had fetal alcohol syndrome, a heart problem, a burn mark all down her chest probably from boiling water, and several other conditions that I couldn’t catch from the community health workers from Philani. It was a heartbreaking scene to watch as this little girl, not much bigger than many babies in the US, walked around gingerly and looked as if she would just fall over. I found my thoughts moving away from hope, rather than towards it. This little girl has very little hope of success in life. Her growth was stunted very young and with that she undoubtedly has many developmental issues. She will likely live out the rest of her life sick without the ability to have an education. She is stuck. Not by her own choice, but by choices outside her control. Seeing this picture unfold before my eyes made me realize that I have come to view this as the norm in these communities. I’m no longer surprised by stories like this; I get surprised when I see a healthy child. I automatically assume that if the child is healthy then the parents must be wealthy. The child must not live in a township, or if they do they must be in a nice home. I have spent my time here trying to see that everyone is equal and should have an equal right to work and health and everything, but I have ended up with an attitude that makes harsh assumptions based on the wellbeing of the child. I guess this has happened because most of the time, I’m right.
Life is not equal and it is certainly not fair. Money does matter here. There are no easy fixes. You cannot donate $50 to an organization and expect to change anything substantial. If you want to get into this, you have to dive in head first willing to give up far more than your money, or your time. You have to lose a part of yourself to this work, but mostly to the people. It is the people who matter in all of this. We get so caught up in the circumstances that we don’t stop to hear the stories along the way. So often we actually find that the stories actually show us the way. This little girl is a person who is worth caring for, not just a disappointing, hopeless project. Everything has hope, even if life isn’t fair and money matters. For people there is always hope. For this little girl, there is a life that is worth living.
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