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.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
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.
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