Friday, September 5, 2008
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Last night in Tanzania
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Bagamoyo
We chose the kuku choma and grilled bananas, because the goat was too expensive. The chicken was as tough as I remember it and the grilled bananas are totally growing on me. I think we'll have to try it when I get back. Buy some green bananas and stick them on a grill. Trust me: it's awesome with vinegar and salt. (On a side note: 'kuku' means chicken and kaka means 'brother.' I've had this terrible fear that I'll address someone with "Habari gani, kuku?" So far it hasn't happened. I hope I haven't jinxed myself by telling you my secret. On another note: dada means 'sister' and 'baba' means father. Dilip, an intern from India, addressed an elderly gentleman with "Shikamoo, dada." I'm sad I wasn't there to see the man's expression...)
One of the Tanzanian interns bought me a bracelet today as a goodbye present. It made me feel bummed out, since it's now a visual reminder that I'm leaving soon. I have to keep from crying!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Masala Massoor (Curried whole Lentils)
1 c massoor (green lentils)
2 sliced onions
2 large tomatoes
7-8 small onions
4 tbspn oil
1 tspn green coriander
Grind to paste:
8 cloves garlic
8 hot red chilies
2 tspn coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
ginger (1 -1.5 in piece)
Cook lentils and whole sliced onions in 2 cups water. Saute sliced onions (3 mins). Add paste, fry 3-4 minutes Add cooked massoor and salt. After 5 minutes, add tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes. Any vegetable or beans (black eyed or split peas) turn out well cooked this way.
I couldn't find coriander at all and the cumin I found in the spice rack was mysteriously covered in mold. Even without those spices, the dish was delicious.
Edson is in Mwanza for a few days trying to finalize arrangements for a CARE Canada retreat. I have the office to myself, which would be nicer if the power didn't keep going on and off. This does mean that I can listen to music while I work. I left my external hard drive in the US, so I don't have anything on my computer. I've been experimenting with online radio, with poor results. For some reason NPR is the only website I can get streaming music from. This is ok for now, but they don't have a big selection.
Sorry this is kind of a boring post. Not much has happened around here recently. I get to go back to Bagamoyo on Sunday for my final workshop. It was supposed to be in Zanzibar, but Ramadan is starting next week. Since Zanzibar is 99% Muslim, a workshop there is not a feasible idea. Bagamoyo is nice, though, it has beaches and large, clean hotels. It's not a bad place to have workshop, but it's definitely a poor substitute for Zanzibar.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Sakare Forest and Bagamoyo
It turned out to be a wonderful experience, so I don't regret the transfer. The drive there was lovely: we passed by farmland most of the way and drove up into the mountains along narrow roads clinging to the sides of steep slopes. I suppose at one point the mountains were entirely covered with lush forest, but now it's been cut back into small isolated pockets. Everything else is planted in neat fields of peas, potatoes, and maize, with some of the plots reaching all the way to the peaks of the mountains. As the road wound higher up the mountains, we started to pass through tea plantations. We stopped to ask a group of women, who were plucking tea, about the plantations. It turns out the tea bushes were planted in the late 1920s, and the plantations have gone through the gamut of ownership: from private German owners to state socialism and now back to private ownership. One of the women said her family started working on the plantations back in the thirties when her grandfather moved there looking for work.
We came to an intersection with a group of men standing around. These were our guides up to the forest reserve. They rode on motorcycles and we followed them up a steep, deeply rutted road through a gate and passed several groups of guards. The gate and the guards are there to protect the forest, not from villagers looking to cut it down for fire wood, but from the owners of a near by tea plantation. The forest is currently being contested by a tea plantation which claims to have bought the land from the government. The villagers claim that the forest is rightly theirs, especially since they replanted most of trees lost to fire and deforestation. Tea requires a lot of wood to create smoke during the drying process and the plantation owners decided they wanted to cut their costs and not pay for the wood. The villagers, who are among Tanzania's poorest populations, see the wood as a valuable source of income. CARE and several partnering organizations have been involved with the community for several years now, teaching about the importance of conservation and biodiversity.
We've also taught the villagers about the many wonderful uses of the media, including how to air your problems out on a national level. The villagers made a documentary that was shown on a national news channel and have written many articles for newspapers and journals. Their plight finally caught the attention of the Prime Minister, who visited and came down on the side of the villagers. They are now awaiting a decision from the courts. Unless their is a massive case of corruption (not out of the question) the ruling should be in favor of the villagers, especially since the tea plantation's ownership papers are forged.
We went on a short hike around the forest to see their watershed conservation efforts. Then we went down to the eucalyptus farm that the villagers have planted. Eucalyptus grows very quickly and, when cut down properly, each stump sends out 10-12 shoots that can also be harvested in 5 years' time. The trees are poor for watershed conservation (what the CARE staff are really concerned about) but great for fire wood production (what the villagers care about). Finally, we went down to the nursery, where the villagers are growing local flora to replant the natural forest. During this part, one of the villagers found a chameleon among the plants:
On Saturday, we tried to leave for Dar around 8am. The land rover started making funny noises, so we dropped it off at a mechanic's and took a cab back to the hotel. It turned out to a be a problem with the air conditioning, but it still took several hours to find the right part and install it. We didn't get on the road until 10:30am. It took us 4 hours to get to the city and another hour to sit through traffic. Anja came home with me and we met up with Lise and Line at my house. Around 5pm we finally departed for Bagamoyo. The ride was very easy, though we were crammed into the dalla-dalla for most of the trip.
Our hotel was really nice. Our rooms were small huts only 30 feet from the ocean! We had a nice dinner and spent an hour or so sitting on the beach chatting with each other. I woke up the next morning to the sound of the waves on the beach. It was wonderful! We got a late start on the day, after playing around for a bit on the sand. We hired a guide to take us to the Kaole ruins, which were about 5km from the city proper. We walked the way there while it wasn't so hot and took a taxi back to Bagamoyo when we were done. The ruins are from the mosque of Kaole and several well preserved graves. The graves must have once been rather spectacular sites, but now were worn down and weathered looking. We spent the afternoon in town and took a dalla-dalla back to Dar around 4pm. It was a short trip, but a lot of fun. I wish I'd known it was so easy to get to Bagamoyo. I would have done it sooner!
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The Land of Milk and Cement
The workshop is going nicely. I was brought along as the note taker, and I'm getting most things down. Sometimes I'm overcome with boredom and have to play a game or two of minesweeper, but otherwise, the workshop is well documented. Tomorrow we are all going out to visit field sites. I get to go to Amani, where they are apparently raising exotic butterflies for collectors around the world. I'm definitely bringing my camera along!
We're heading out early on Saturday morning. Anja (pronounced Anya), my new Danish friend, and I are going to meet up with Lise and Line in Dar. The plan is to catch a late dalla-dalla to Bagamoyo and spend the night. There are neat ruins and a museum about the slave trade there. Sunday is Lise's birthday and we'll probably celebrate by going to the wonderful Ethiopian restaurant near my house. I'm looking forward to it!
Monday, August 18, 2008
The weekend, then off to Tanga
On Sunday, I wanted to go to Bagamoyo to see the ruins and the old slave trade head quarters. I was reading through my Lonely Planet guide book, and it turns out the tourist information center isn't open on Sundays. The thought of trying to deal with touts without the respite of a paid official to tell me which tours were legitimate didn't sound like a good idea. Instead I decided to check out the Village Museum. The guide book told me that the museum was across from the Mwenge carver's market, so I hopped on a dalla-dalla up to Mwenge. I got out and wandered around for 10 minutes, not seeing anything that resembled a museum. I finally asked someone, and it turns out the museum is back towards where I came from and nowhere near the market. Lonely Planet: you suck.
I headed back to the market, which was a mistake! I went into a shop and was talked into wandering around the market with the owner. We visited the stalls of his friends and family and I picked out a few really nice pieces. I had originally intended them to be gifts, but after the price I paid for them, I think they're all going to be mine. Haha! I have a wee bit of buyer's remorse from the price, but I think in the end, they are worth the cost. Now the problem is, how do I get heavy chunks of ebony home??
After our business transaction, my new, much richer friend took me out to lunch. His name is Sigari and he can't be much older than I am. I asked him about the carving business, which his family has been involved in for generations. Each of the statues I bought took one to two weeks to carve. His family now owns two stalls in the market and rents another two. In typical African fashion, all of his friends and family in other countries are being used as business contacts. He says he is now starting to ship carvings to LA and Helsinki, of all places. He knows a guy in Boston, and is trying to set up a seller there.
After our lunch, I told him I still wanted to see the museum. It was now 3pm and the museum would be open until 6pm, so I had plenty of time. He flagged down a top-top for me. I've seen tons of these little vehicles driving around, but had never had the courage to ride in one. They are very cute: three wheels and open on the sides. Their tiny little engines make high-pitched whirring sounds as they weave through traffic at break-neck speeds. Also, they are much cheaper than taxis, owing to the gas conservation of their small engines. At one point, I thought we were going to tip over, but we made it to the museum without incident. It turns out I could have easily biked to the Village museum from my house. It's probably closer than the CARE offices. I don't understand how the guide book could have such blatantly wrong information...
The museum is really neat. It's filled with the traditional houses of about 30 of the tribes in Tanzania. This country has over 120 different tribes and the museum showcased the largest groups. The houses ranged from domed huts made entirely from grass, to complex, many roomed mud brick houses with intricately carved doors. Many of the houses had corrals inside, so the people had to sleep only a few feet from the cows and goats! It must make for quite a stink.
I paid the extra 2,000/= fee to see a performance of traditional dances. It turned out to be a performance just for me, since no one else was visiting the museum at the time. There were three percussionists and four dancers. The dancers also sang and one of them would occasionally blow on a whistle. If I was asked to interpret the dances, I would say they were about farming. The women spent most of the dances bent over and sweeping their arms back and forth. After the performance ended, one of the drummers called me over and handed me the sticks for the marimba. Haha. Little did they know, I have no sense of rhythm. I actually handled the first song alright, since it only had three notes. The second one was more complex and I was completely hopeless. After about 15 minutes, I gave up, thanked them and then wandered around the museum grounds some more.
Today, I'm supposed to head to Tanga for my second workshop. This time it's with the environmental sector and I'm just tagging along as the note taker. I'm a little hesitant about the trip, because I'm running out of time here. I think it will be an interesting learning experience, however. One of the sector's main issues is land and resource governance in communities with refugee populations. Anyway, they're paying for my housing and food, and this time the conference will be in English. Many of the program directors are ex-pats who do not speak Swahili fluently. I'm at the offices now, but I'll have to leave soon with a driver to pick up my luggage. The man I'm driving with, Balaram, is apparently prone to leaving when he is ready and not at a set time. This means we will be leaving at some unspecified time before 1pm. Haha. Not much time to get work done...
Friday, August 15, 2008
Belated shout out for my sister:
Here, have this picture of a giraffe as a present:
Yay!
Final Iringa post!
August 15
Wow, the ride home was crazy. We passed by THREE major accidents on the way from Iringa. The first was at the top of the first mountain we climbed. We didn't see any of the wreckage because the petrol tankard had ROLLED off the mountain and into a small crevice between peaks. The fact that it was a petrol tankard meant that we passed several hundred people running up the road with buckets to collect the leaking gasoline before the authorities could arrive to clean up. The accident was probably one of the largest windfalls the villagers in the area have ever experienced. I just wonder if the driver made it out alive.
Once we were out of the mountains, it was a straight shot to Mikume, where we stopped for breakfast. The restaurant was also attached to a snake farm, but they wanted me to pay in US dollars in order to get in. I told Edson I could see snakes in glass containers in the US, but not wild giraffes, so we jumped back in the landrover once we finished eating. Our first ride through the park occurred during the afternoon and there were few animals to be seen. This time, it was around 10am and there were many more out and about. I believe we saw impala, zebra, buffalo, elephants and giraffes. There were way too many impala and not enough of anything else. The elephants were spotted by Rama lying under a distant tree. I'm not sure how he saw them while also keeping control of the car. The man has good eyes. The giraffes were my favorite and we got to see about 10 in total. I took pictures, and I'll post them when I can.
At this point, we saw our second accident. A bus had collided with a tractor trailer. The front of the truck was completely smashed to pieces and was on fire when we passed. The bus had been pushed off the road and was compacted all along its right side. About two dozen people were standing alongside the road looking confused and upset. There was a tow-truck moving the bus, but no evidence of an ambulance or emergency vehicles. I'm not sure how emergency services work (or don't work) in this country.
We again stopped in Morogoro for lunch. On the way to the restaurant I saw two familiar blond Danish girls walking by some shops. I pulled out my phone and dialed Lise and invited her and Line to eat lunch with us. They were totally surprised, but quickly joined us at the restaurant. It turns out they are in Morogoro for the weekend taking a break from life in rural Turiani. They have plans to go hiking in the morning (I'm totally jealous). We said a quick goodbye after lunch, but I should be seeing them in a week's time when they come for a visit in Dar. I believe Lise said it was her birthday on Sunday, so I'll have to figure out a celebration of sorts.
Just before the bridge that separates Morogoro district from Dar es Salaam city limits, we passed our third accident. This one looked like it was a few hours old. There was another tractor trailer blocking one of the lanes in the road. When we drove around it, we could see that the front was also smashed, similar to the accident in Mikume. There was no evidence of the other vehicle, though it must have been large to cause that much damage. Given that the truck was in the right lane facing the wrong direction, it must have been trying to pass another vehicle when it rammed into something going the other way. I don't think I've seen so much destruction in one day before.
I have the weekend free and then I have to pick up and go to another workshop on Monday, this time in Tanga. Tanga is a city roughly parallel to the smaller of Zanzibar's two islands. It should be about a two hour drive, but you never know in this country. I'm trying to decide if I want to go to Bagamoyo for the day tomorrow or not. Hmm.
Third post
August 14
I just watched the strangest Coke ad I've ever seen. It involved people drinking Coke and then saying “Brrrr” and shaking. Somehow this is supposed to be cool and sell more Coke? So, how about the Olympics? I catch odd snippets in the mornings before the workshop starts at 9am, which means I've watched way too much volleyball and not enough of anything really interesting.
Yesterday, I hit rock bottom on the boredom scale. I just sat through hours of Swahili and kind of wanted to cry most of the afternoon. Way to be hit with culture shock, Lexy, now that your trip is almost over. Oh well. After the workshop ended for the day, Edson and I walked (walked!) down the street to the Hasty Tasty Too for dinner. It's run by an Arab family and serves range of Swahili and Zanzibari food. I had vegetable curry, which was a nice respite after three days of almost exclusively dining on meat and carbohydrates. Edson and I spoke about a number of things, including why the workshop attendees are 85% male. It turns out that most of CARE's employees are men too. This is apparently not because CARE hasn't tried to attract more female employees, but when job openings are posted, the replies are almost exclusively from men. Edson went on to tell me, though, that universities in Tanzania are enacting very good affirmative action policies for women and offering them scholarships that are not available to men. Hopefully this will increase the number of women in the job market in the coming years and make the gender balance more fair in such pro-women organizations like CARE.
Today I did a lot better. Instead of trying to pay attention to the workshop, I just worked on my computer. The manual needs a lot of work, and I don't think I'm going to have the time to finish it! I have to get in work on it when I can. Today was the last day of the workshop and we ended a couple of hours early so people could leave at a decent time. I took Rama up on his offer to drive me around Iringa so I could at least say I'd seen the place. He also had a couple of errands to run. First, he needed to pick up cooking oil. White people come to Iringa because it's the nearest city to Ruaha National Park and for the stone-age ruins near by. Tanzanians come to Iringa because it's the source of cheap sunflower oil. We drove up one of the many mountains to a small “industry” as Rama called it, where a bunch of men were sifting through piles of sunflower seeds. They were surrounded by their own small mountain of seed bags, and there must have been several tons lying on the ground. Rama bought 40 liters of oil: 20 for his family and 20 for Edson's. In Dar, that amount apparently goes for 60,000/=, but in Iringa you can get it for less than 40,000/=. (In US terms, that's $34 for 5 gallons of cooking oil).
Next we had to pick up shoes from a guest house that one of the participants had left. He lives in Morogoro, so I suppose we'll be dropping them off tomorrow. We passed by a view of a valley that literally took my breath away. I don't remember that ever happening before, but it was so beautiful and came into sight so suddenly that it made me gasp for air. On the way back into city center, I made Rama stop so I could take a photograph. I told him I was having a “mtalii moment” (tourist). The photos don't do it justice. Oh well. We're heading home tomorrow, very early I in the morning. We're leaving early so I can have another “mtalii moment” when we drive through Mikume National Park. The animals are active early in the morning, so we're leaving at 6am so we can arrive when it's still cool outside. Hoot!
Second post from Iringa
August 12
It's now two days into the workshop. It's not what I expected, but I'm dealing with it. Edson gave me the impression that the workshop would be in English but it's been about 80% Swahili at this point. I'm not angry, but I am a bit frustrated. After all, this is supposed to be a learning experience for the participants and the best way for that to happen is to conduct the workshop in their native language. I just feel a little useless at this point. Today I mostly sat around, listening when people were speaking English and trying to write my Fulbright essays when they weren't. During lunch, I chatted with a few of the other guests at our hotel and they were talking about all the neat sites around Iringa. Apparently there is a stone age settlement, good hiking and a game park near by. I feel a little let down that I'm stuck in a conference room all day when there are so many neat out-doors things to do in the area. I guess that's the nature of workshops: large numbers of people travel from their offices to an exotic locale and then spend all day inside.
Yesterday was more interesting. Edson had me leading two of the sessions, one on introducing governance and another on related themes. It was a little awkward. I would present a slide in English and then Edson would try to explain it in Swahili. Governance is a difficult topic in any language, but I feel we were getting through to people. Edson tries very hard to keep things participatory, so there were several small group exercises followed by a short presentation on each group's discussion. Honestly, it felt a lot like a class at Clark. I was nervous for about the first 5 minutes, but then I quickly got over it. I guess two years as a tour guide has done my public speaking skills some good.
I'm feeling a bit cooped up here. I'm used to being able to ride my bike around to blow off excess energy, but I don't feel safe leaving the hotel at night. I have a TV, but after 7pm all the channels are in Swahili which doesn't help my cabin fever at all. I borrowed a book from the Barkers', but I finished it on Sunday. Way to be unprepared for boredom. The book was The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. It's an ethnography and a good part of the book details the authors own experiences with researching Hmong immigrants. I feel like I'm totally up to writing a book about my own insecurities and mishaps, so maybe this Anthropology thing isn't so hard...
...
It turns out I spoke (wrote?) too soon. Rama came back after dropping people off at their hotels and took me to an internet cafe. As soon as he drove off, the place started having electrical problems and I had to sit and wait for half an hour before he came back. A couple of other people from the workshop happened to be near by, and we all piled into the landrover and drove around looking for another cafe that was open at 7:30pm. Iringa is a small, rural city and places tend to close soon after sunset. The place we finally found had a slow connection (that's where I made the short update), but I was able to check my email and read up on the news, etc. Afterward, Rama, myself and one of the other facilitators, Makame, stopped by the Miami Bar for dinner. The name made me crack up, but the food was good and cheap. We had nyama choma, which I think just means 'grilled meat' and grilled green bananas. Now, I know you're imagining grilling the bananas you buy in a US supermarket, but that's not this kind of banana. They're definitely bananas and not plantains, but they're cooked while still green. It kind of tastes like a bland potato, but was ok when when dipped in hot pepper vinegar. The kuku (local chicken) was tasty, but also probably the toughest meat I've ever had. You really had to chew the stuff to get it down. That's the trade-off here: food looks ugly and is hard to chew, but it is certainly a heck of a lot tastier than the soft, nice looking food in the States. Go figure.
First entry from my Iringa trip
I'm rather pleased with yesterday's trip. Spending too much time in Dar has given me the impression that Tanzania is one big, dusty, overcrowded urban environment. Dar is a huge city. We traveled almost 30km from the city center before we were officially out of the city limits. The view out the window slowly changed from urban to peri-urban to scattered settlements dispersed in the bush. It's hard for me to describe what the countryside is like here. I haven't seen landscape anywhere in the US that is similar to what is found here. The only tree I recognized is the baobab, with the iconic swollen, silver trunks and bare branches towering over other vegetation that looks stunted and pale in comparison.
Most of the land we passed through was either flat or covered in small, gently rolling hills. The flatness made the mountains looming in the distance appear so much taller since there was nothing to diminish the view of them. The land was practically flat right up to base of the mountain ranges, where the earth would suddenly jut skyward into steep, craggy peaks. The city of Morogoro, where we stopped for lunch, has just such a backdrop. The city is small in comparison to Dar, but is the fourth largest urban area after Dar, Mwanza and Arusha. We ate at a Swahili restaurant and I had the usual fare of fried fish, rice, beans, greens and a banana. I was positively stuffed from all the food. I made the mistake of ordering soda water—my second choice after the restaurant didn't have bottled water—which caused my stomach to swell with gas bubbles that made me feel ill until several rounds of burps released the pressure. While we were eating, a large, well-armed motorcade drove past the restaurant. I asked Edison who traveled in such style and he said it was either the president, VP or prime minister. That's probably the closest I'll ever get to a leader of a country.
It took us about two hours to reach Morogoro, and our driver, Rama, said it would be another four hours to Iringa. It would normally take us less time, but part of the route goes through a game park with a strict 70 kph speed limit. While in the park we passed by warthogs, zebra and several kinds of antelope. After the park, it was flat for about another hour, then we started to head up into the mountains. The mountain roads are similar to driving through East Tennessee: they are very narrow and full of tight curves. They are, however, in rather poor condition and most drivers seem to interpret lane markers as suggestions only. At one point, we passed a tractor trailer that had flipped over, probably from taking a curve to quickly. No one appeared hurt, but neither was there anything around that would help them move the truck from out of the middle of the road. Luckily it was only blocking one lane and we were able to pass through. At the top of another mountain was a group of young men selling roasted maize. They practically threw themselves in front of everything that came by, from passenger cars to giant trucks, waving a fistful of partially burnt corn. We each bought a cob, including the driver, who ate with one hand and steered us down the winding road with the other. That was a bit scary.
The road flattened out again as we drove closer to Iringa, though we were surrounded on all sides by boulder covered mountains. Iringa is positioned at the top of one of these mountains. The final climb was surprisingly precarious. The speedometer indicated that the vehicle never went above 40 kph, but it felt like we were still going too fast up the curves, especially with all the bicycles and people crowding along the road. Our hotel turned out to be at the Lutheran Center and is quite luxurious by African standards. My small room contains a TV with 6 channels and a flush toilet. The bed has a mosquito net, but I think the weather is too cold this time of year for the buggers to be out. Hopefully all my bites will heal this week so I can arrive back in Dar as a fresh source of food for the little f***ers to feast on. I really hate mosquitoes.
This morning I got up early, took a long hot shower and ate a big breakfast. I was reading in my room when Edson knocked to ask if the ride had upset my computer in any way. I booted up and found that everything was fine. I asked if something was wrong with his computer, and he said that “some files were missing.” This turned out to mean that Microsoft Office and all of his documents had mysteriously disappeared. It looked like the computer had somehow reverted back to factory settings. This didn't seem possible and despite the fact that Edson appeared calm, I could tell he was trying not to panic. It's hard to run a four day workshop when all your notes are gone. After poking around for a while and finding nothing, I told him to reboot the computer. When it finally came on again, all the files were there. I have no idea what happened, but this is two days in a row when a Vista computer has acted strangely in my presence. (Yesterday morning, Sally's new laptop appeared to be having hard drive trouble and wouldn't boot properly.) I have to wonder if a new Vista update isn't causing some kind of trouble.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
quick update
Thursday, August 7, 2008
I don't have much else to report, except to post a link to a document I'm currently reading. The writing is a little rough, but I'd say it's one of the best reports on governance I've come across so far. It's not too long, so read it if you're interested in learning more about what's on my brain these days.
Engaged Governance
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Some exciting things:
2. Friday is a holiday! My friend, Brandon, will still be around, though the students will not. We'll think of something fun!
3. The workshop in Iringa begins on Monday. Edson and I are traveling to Iringa on Saturday to begin preparations. We are going by car and the drive should take around 5 hours. I'm not sure what to expect in Iringa, but I'm looking forward to the workshop, if only as a break from sitting in an office all day.
Meanwhile: I'm supposed to crank out a first draft of the manual by Saturday! I've gotten a lot done, but I'm not optimistic about meeting the deadline. This project is huge...
Monday, August 4, 2008
weekend update
I was feeling much better on Friday. I got to work and Edson and I immediately started mapping out our plans for the training manual. I hope I have time to finish this project before I leave. It's starting to look like it's going to take a lot more work than we anticipated. A couple of new Danish interns came by Edson's office on their round of introductions. I gave them my cell number and told them to call if they wanted to hang out this weekend before they get shipped off to a small village north of Morogoro for 5 months. They called as soon as their cell service was activated.
I mentioned that I wanted to check out the Mwenge carver's market on Saturday. They had plans for the morning but were free in the afternoon. In the morning, I took a bike ride with Sally. I'm so slow on a bike, it's kind of hilarious. Also, even the slightest hill makes me go even slower. I'm so out of shape! Sally would stop every once in a while for me to catch up. I felt bad for holding her up. We biked around the Masani peninsula and ended up on Haile Selassie blvd. to check out the Tingatinga center. I suspect that many of you will now be receiving Tingatinga artwork for souvenirs. Ahem.
I called up Lise and Line and they said they were getting coffee at the Shoppers Plaza, which is very near the Barker's house. I walked over and we chatted for a bit over coffee before heading out to the bus stand. We had a cramped ride up to Mwenge, which is at the end of the bus route. The market is not what I was expecting. I had pictured a bunch of artisans sitting around carving big hunks of wood. Instead, it was filled mostly with the same wooden souvenirs one can find at any tourist destination on the continent.
On Sunday the three of us decided to visit Bongoyo, an island about 6 km off the coast of Dar. We caught the ferry from Slipway. It goes at a very slow pace for some reason. It took us almost an hour to cover the distance. We got some of the few seats on the top deck, so it was pretty pleasant. The island is a nature conservatory, and its very wild looking. We spent most of the day on the beach, sitting in the sun. I walked around for a bit and found a small tide pool with gigantic sea eels in it. Some of them were over three feet long and 5-6 inches wide! In the afternoon we took one of the many hiking trails to a place called Shark Lagoon. The tide had come in, so we didn't get to walk around the lagoon much, but sitting on the beach taking in the beautiful view was still very nice. My camera died in the morning, so I didn't get any pictures. Line and Lise have promised to friend me on Facebook (you can't get away from it...) and I'll link you to the pictures they took.
Alright, this post is now way too long! That's it for now.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
bugs
Malaria infects 300-400 million people and kills over a million of them each year. It is both preventable and curable, yet people still die, especially people with weak immune systems like children, pregnant women, the elderly and people who are already sick. It is also somewhat of a tragedy that HIV/AIDS receives so much funding and attention, while general health is ignored. Health issues like maternal mortality, diarrhea, malaria and TB affect many more people in Africa than does the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The first four are all easily prevented or cured, but there is little funding available and so millions of people die every year for lack of health facilities, clean water and medication. The US government has donated over $100 million to Tanzania and every penny is earmarked for HIV/AIDS programming. In a way, this is a great crime. Health and disease cannot be isolated from their social, political and economic contexts, yet this is precisely what the US government is seeking to do. It is trendy to fund HIV/AIDS programming, and so it is funded at the detriment of health issues in general.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
A tale of two days in a city
I caught a dalla-dalla at 9:30am from a stand near the Barker's house. The bus system in Tanzania is all privately owned and there is always room for one more on the bus. They are cheap, even by Tanzania standards (about 20 cents a ride) and they are perpetually overcrowded. I made it down to Posta, the main post office, and waited until Godfry, one of the Tanzanian interns at CARE, arrived. He had promised to take me all over Dar today and warned me to wear good walking shoes because we were going to cover a big chunk of the city on foot.
First we walked around City Center and he pointed out various buildings of interest: the tallest building in the country, the national bank, various ministries and embassies, etc. Then we went into the National Museum, which has a rather hodge-podge feel about it, but was interesting nonetheless. The museum is undergoing some major renovations so only two buildings were open. The first building contains the history of Tanzania from the stone age to the near present, documenting the settlement of early Bantu peoples, almost two thousand years of global trade, colonialism, and independence. A big chunk of this part of the museum was dedicated to describing the life of Mwalimu J. K. Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania and leader of the independence movement. To get to the second building, we passed through a courtyard that contained all of the cars that Nyerere used while in office. For a self-proclaimed socialist leader, the man rode in style in his BMWs and Rolls Royces. The second building was much less coherent than the first and contained things like two million year old human skulls, Masai weapons, and a bicycle made completely from wood.
Next we walked along the beach past the state house, president's mansion and his neighbor, the prime minister's house. This road led us directly to the fish market where Godfry wanted to stop and say hello to a former CARE employee who had taken up the fish selling business. I guess you can make more as a fish monger than a NGO employee, even in a third world country. He was a very friendly guy and, in typical Tanzanian fashion, he invited me over for dinner.
From the fish market, we caught another dalla-dalla to Kariakoo, which Godfry claims is the second largest market on the continent. I believe him. The market is literally the size of a suburb. Just imagine if your city placed all of its business establishments into one place, everything from the shopping mall to the hardware store, the office supplies and beauty boutiques, grocery stores and road side stands. It's all there in one crowded, loud, dusty place. There are little shops crowding both sides of the street and there are hawkers selling everything from electronics to ladies' underwear overflowing off the sidewalks. The streets themselves are filled with people. It was like the streets of New York during a festival, except today was just an ordinary day at the market. We spent an hour walking around, never seeing the same street twice and never leaving the boundaries of Kariakoo.
When 1pm rolled around we were both tired and hungry. Godfry was worried that the food wasn't good at the market. I'm inclined to be cautious about food here, since a mistake can leave you chained to a toilet for two weeks. We hopped on another bus to ride out to a place near where Godfry's brother lives. I had a fried fish with rice and Godfry had fried chicken. I paid as a thank you for taking me around and the bill came out to around $5 for two people. He escorted me back to Posta where I said goodbye and took the bus home. I was really worn out from the day, so I spent the evening reading the Barkers' copy of Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Sunday Sally and I both woke up late. This means I got out of bed at around 7:30am and lounged around in my pajamas until 10am or so. Then Paul rode over with his laundry since the place he's staying at doesn't have a machine. He did a load and we set off on our bikes to pick up his friend, Gaysha. We rode down New Bagamoyo Rd until it became Bi. Titi Mohammad Rd and we split off down Ocean Rd, which ran parallel to the beach path Godfry and I had walked on Saturday. Even before you get to the ferry, you know it's coming up by the long line of cars waiting to board. I'm so glad we were on bikes because we passed them all by and rode right up to the ticket booth. It was only 200/- (17 cents) for the ride from City Center to Kigamboni peninsula. The ferry takes 5 minutes to cross the channel. There really should be a bridge there instead, and the government claims it will eventually build one, but there is no sign that that will happen soon. Pedestrians and those on bikes get across easily and those driving cars have to wait hours. Driving around the inlet would also take hours, so either way, car drivers are screwed. Here's a map to show you what I mean:
The top arrow is the ferry and the bottom is the direction we rode in for the beach. I've also included a black dote that is where I live and a red dote that is where the CARE offices are located.
After we got across it was another 10 kilometers to our destination: a beach resort on South Beach. It was 3000/- to get onto the beach, but the attendant handed us drink vouchers for the bar worth the same. The beach was so beautiful! I have this idea about myself that I'm not much of a beach person, but every time I'm at a beach I definitely become one. The combination of water, breeze and sun just makes me want to lie in the sand and sleep for hours. I splashed around in the water for a bit, had overpriced veggie curry for lunch and then napped in the sun for a few hours. My drink voucher eventually went toward a mojito, which was too heavy on the lime but still pretty good. Tanzania doesn't have silly things like a trade embargo with Cuba, so you can actually buy a mojito here with Cuban rum in it. Imagine that.
Since we are right on the equator here, we only get 12 hours of sun, no matter the season. At around 5pm the sun was beginning to set so we brushed the sand off ourselves as best as possible and hopped back on our bikes. It was much easier getting back to the ferry since it was slightly down hill in this direction. The trip back was uneventful, except that I almost ran over a chicken that dashed in front of my bicycle. Stupid chicken. All in all, the ride was over 30 kilometers, which is probably the longest I have been on a bicycle ever. My butt will probably be sore all week and it really doesn't help that I have to ride to and from work every day. This morning was uncomfortable, but I think the beach was definitely worth it.
Friday, July 25, 2008
This morning I attended the British Council's monthly Policy Breakfast. The topic was interesting, but the speakers chosen were not. There is a plan to ratify a NGO Code of Conduct in Tanzania, and the debate is over who should enforce it: the government, the NGO Council, or the legal system. The NGO Council wants it to be completely voluntary and leave any wrong doing to be pursued by the courts. The government wants to enforce it, ostensibly for fairness, but there is a lot of concern about government control over the non-government sector.
The debate over accountability in the government and NGO sectors is one I'm familiar with from my studies. Most NGOs are very accountable to their donors and hardly accountable to the people they're supposed to be serving. This means that if the services delivered are poor or incorrect, people have few avenues for demanding change. Edson asked me if I had any solutions, and it was my turn to laugh. Accountability is such a huge part of justice, but I don't know if it's a justice many in the world will ever be able to access. I certainly don't have answers.
The Policy Breakfast was a good beginning for my day. I'm helping Edson write up a proposal for DFID (the UK counterpart of USAID) that has to do with increasing government accountability. The grant is for over $20 million and I can just hear all the higher-ups salivating over the prospect of getting all that money. Having DFID as a donor agency is something CARE Tanz has been pursuing for a while, and they really want this proposal to be good. Wish us luck!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
food and work
I went shopping yesterday for food. It was kind of a shock to my brain. The raw produce was extremely cheap. For instance, potatoes were selling for 700/- a kilo, which comes out to about 25 cents a pound. On the opposite end of the scale, a box of cereal cost, on average, $13. The cheapest cereal they had was Wheatabix, which is cereal compressed into bars that dissolve into mush when milk is added. While I do miss breakfast cereal, I am not willing to spend $13 a week on it. I picked up the largest box of Wheatabix I could find, which cost about $10 and should last me for three weeks or so. It tastes like cardboard, but it's full of fiber and other healthy things that I'm probably not getting enough of here.
Work at CARE has been alright. When I'm helping to prepare for our upcoming workshop, things are interesting. When I'm editing the UGI report, I find myself wanting to fall asleep. I think I've read through the thing about a dozen times by now (it's 53 pages long) and I'm getting a wee bit sick of it. I keep assigning myself really small editing tasks so I can do them quickly and move on before my attention completely fades.
The workshop is back in Zanzibar and begins on Monday. I think we are taking the Sunday afternoon ferry over, and we'll be coming back on Friday. The workshops are for CARE staff to help them better integrate good governance into their projects. The UGI review discovered that most of the CARE staff believe that they are promoting good governance, but when asked, can’t actually explain what that means. So these workshops are to introduce them to the basic principles of good governance and CARE’s governance framework. CARE aims to promote participation, accountability and transparency. Transparency is to ensure that government decisions are made in a fair and open manner. Accountability is meant to hold decision makers responsible for their actions. Participation is to educate people about their rights and about navigating the legal system to ensure that those rights are upheld. Honestly, we could use more of this work in the US. I told this to Edson. He laughed and said the US is the one pushing Tanzania and organizations like CARE to do this work.
Some pictures from Zanzibar
Nutmeg in the wild!
Our guide cutting open a sour sop fruit.
Turmeric sure is yellow!
One big fruit standing next to another.
Spices!
Meredith!
Miranda!
A big clove tree next to a coconut palm.
Typical Zanzibari food: Pilau, curry, spinach and chapati.
The view from the ferry.
A really cool door. I took too many pictures of cool doors there.
Most of the streets were very narrow.
A dhow.
Monday, July 21, 2008
The delights of Zanzibar!
I was up the next day before 7am. At the cheap places, the bathroom is down the hall. It wasn’t too bad (i.e. there was always toilet paper), but it was a little odd to shower while standing next to a toilet. This meant that the toilet was usually wet all day, but the up-shot was that at least it was being cleaned regularly. Breakfast was included in the price of a room (less than $20 a night)! They served us three kinds of fruit (banana, tangerine, and pineapple), toast, choice of eggs, and tea and coffee. It was definitely a refreshing way to start off our day.
The previous night, we had been convinced by the receptionist to take a Spice Tour this morning. It was about $12 and included a tour of nearby spice plantations, fruit tasting, lunch and time on the beach. The plantation was very wild looking and I would probably have mistaken it for a forest if I wasn’t told what it was. All the different crops were mixed together—giant clove trees next to tall slender coconut palms, banana and cacao trees, low lying turmeric and cassava plants, and trees covered in black pepper or vanilla vines. It was all very beautiful when taken in together, with the red soil and vibrant greens and yellows. Our guide took us through the plantation on foot, explained to us the various popular and traditional uses for each of the crops, and let us smell and even taste a few of them.
The plantation tour ended with a visit to a stand where the local farmers were selling most of the spices we saw for about $1 per 1/8th pound. There were even vanilla beans selling for less than $2 for 4 beans. I bought 4 packets of vanilla, and one packet each of the following: black pepper, cloves, masala tea mix, and vanilla tea. After the spice stand, we were taken to a place with benches where we got to sample a bunch of different fruit. I liked most of what we were given. My favorite was the sour sop fruit, which was sweet and tangy. My least favorite was the jack fruit, which kind of tasted like pineapple bubblegum.
All in all, we got to see, smell and taste the following spices and fruits:
Cloves
Cocoa
Ginger
Cardamom
Cassava
Pepper
Turmeric
Neem tree
Star fruit
Sour sop
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Vanilla
Henna plant
Jack fruit
The whole time there were little children running around weaving little trinkets out of palm fronds and begging for money. I hate encouraging kids to associate white people with handouts, but I did eventually hand over the 100 shilling coins I had on me. It was hard to say no to the little guys.
I decided I didn’t really want to spend time on the beach, so I went back to Stonetown with Sally to walk around. The town is a warren of narrow, stone cobbled streets between crumbling, high walled buildings. It would have been much more charming if all the shop keepers had been less insistent that we enter every single shop we passed by. With the notable exception of the shop owned by Mr. and Mrs. Cheapest, I only purchased stuff from quiet and polite vendors. The amount of attention my skin color received from almost every merchant in town made me want to buy a hijab to hide under. Then again, the further impairment of visibility would have made it even harder for me to get out of the way of the many motorbikes whizzing through the narrow streets. The self proclaimed Mr. and Mrs. Cheapest were rather charming and talked me into buying a bunch of shawls from their shop. It wasn’t a hard sell, given the shawls’ bright colors and soft textures. They are made on Zanzibar, though not by hand. I saw many people selling shawls in the various shops, but Mr. Cheapest—who was the first shop I came to—wound up having the best selection, in my opinion.
There was a big festival going on in Zanzibar while we were there, though we didn’t know before hand. It was an international film and music festival, but because we weren’t prepared for it, we didn’t really get to see much of it. We did catch a bit of Taraab music on Saturday night, which is an eclectic mixture of the island’s many cultural influences. Also at the festival were a bunch of craft merchants, who managed to talk me out of all the cash I’d brought with me. Haha. It’s all pretty stuff—shawls, batiks, and a wood carving.
Hidden back in a corner of the craft fair was a group of young men selling beautiful wooden sculptures. They are all from a carving school up in Bagamoyo, a town about 40 kilometers northwest of Dar. Many of the venders had a very similar selection of stuff, but not these guys. There seems to be a mentality of ‘if something sells, continue making copies of it.’ For example, there was a famous artist in Dar who had the last name of Tingatinga. He painted these very whimsical and brightly colored pictures of animals and people. There are now hundreds of shops selling knock-offs of Tingatinga, because tourists love buying them. Some of the Tingatinga painters are quite good, but they are still copying this one man’s style. The wood carvers from Bagamoyo were not copying anyone. The sculptures were all unique—a refreshing change from the hundred shops all selling the exact same collection of tchotchkes—and combined traditional Tanzanian themes with Modern abstract design. Some were very realistic, while others were grotesque and strange, but all were expertly crafted. I didn’t have anywhere near the amount of cash on hand needed to purchase the piece I really wanted. I have plans to get out to Bagamoyo in the near future, so I will definitely drop by the studio to see if it’s still available. I settled on a small-ish bust of a woman carved from ebony. It’s really heavy, but was worth the sore shoulder I got from carrying it in my luggage.
All in all, I’m very pleased with the trip and especially pleased with the food I ate. I had seafood for dinner both nights. The first night, it was the kingfish curry and the second night, I had fried calamari. At the restaurant on the second night, we sat on cushions on the floor and the room was adorned with Arabic and African decorations. The calamari came with pilau, and little servings of mango chutney, pumpkin, and greens. The meals were all delicious and the desserts were even better: crunchy chocolate and pistachio cake, soft and moist date cake, and bowls of fresh fruit. Next week I’m returning to Zanzibar to help run a workshop with CARE. I don’t know how much time I will have to wander about again, but hopefully the food at the workshop will be equal to what I had this weekend.
After such a long post, no pictures! I know you all want to see them, and I will try to sort through them and post some tomorrow. Also, I purchased a number of neat postcards. I have the addresses of a few people already, but if you would like to receive one, just email me your address: alexis ‘dot’ close ‘at’ gmail ‘dot’ com.
Friday, July 18, 2008
Off to Zanzibar!
Well, by now you're probably wondering about the title of this post. I'm going to Zanzibar this weekend with Sally, a friend of Sally's and two of Sally's Friend's friends. I just wanted to write that out. Their names are Meredith, Miranda, and Adrian. Meredith and Sally are from the same university, though I think Meredith is an undergrad. She met Miranda and Adrian this summer on a study abroad program in Uganda. Now they are all traveling around together until school starts in August. Sounds like a blast to me.
I'm leaving work after lunch to meet up with them. We're going to try to take the 4pm ferry to Zanzibar. At least, my guide book says there is a 4pm ferry. Who knows what reality will present us with. Sally is going to check the ticket booths this morning and call me if our plans have to suddenly change. The fast ferry takes about 1.5 hours and is about $35 for one way. Some of the girls want to spend the day on Zanzibar's beautiful beaches, but I'd rather explore Stonetown and see the old buildings. The island has been inhabited by various ethnic groups for at least the last two thousand years and is supposed to reflect styles from African, Arabic and Asian cultures. It’s supposedly more expensive than the mainland, but not anywhere near the cost of a tourist destination in the US or Europe. Everything is relative here.
I probably won’t post again until Monday, but you’ll finally get to see some pictures! (Provided, of course, that no one runs off with my camera.)
Thursday, July 17, 2008
The rain falls mainly on the dirt road...
We played for maybe 20 minutes before the skies opened up. The rainy season is over, so these little showers normally last a couple of minutes and are pretty light. This one, however, was a decent downpour and we were all thoroughly soaked. When it finished, the court was too wet for us to play, so we packed up and headed out. The route back to the Barker's house is about 5 miles of dirt road, which had turned to mud by now. My bike didn't have any fenders on it, and by the time I made it back, I was covered from the waist down in road mud. Blegch. Good thing I've been waiting to do laundry...
I took a shower and phoned the CARE offices to send a driver to pick me up. It was only 8am and I was already done with bikes for the day.
Today I've been researching various donor organizations who have previously funded governance programming in Tanzania. It was a little boring, but I recorded a bunch of web addresses for future reference. When I finally start writing my MA paper, I think these will come in handy.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
The Barkers have a house guest, Sally, who I mentioned earlier. She's here with a guy, also named Paul, who is interning with Abbot Labs, but on a different project. He's about a year younger than I am, and is going into his last year of engineering at a school in Wisconsin. Both of them are into biking around Dar, and in the month that they've been here so far, they've covered quite a bit of the city. Paul (the elder) has loaned me a spare bike, which is a bit beat up but still works as it should. I'm pleased with the new mobility I've been afforded. Unfortunately, I didn't really bring any clothing appropriate for bike riding, since at no point during my planning did I imagine I would be traveling in such a manner. Paul claims that in the many countries he's worked in Africa, Tanzania has the best conditions for biking. All the major roads have very wide pedestrian areas, which is good safety-wise since people are even worse drivers here than in Worcester. I know that's hard to believe, but Massachusetts does not actually have the worst drivers on the planet.
Paul bicycles in to work at 7am, so I left with Sally this morning since she leaves at a more reasonable time. She's working at Mohambili, probably the largest hospital in Tanzania, and CARE is on the way to her destination. The route is very simple and only has two turns. Once I'm out of Paul's neighborhood, I just follow the main road down to the Stanbic Bank and take a right at Kinunduga road. The trip took slightly longer than 10 minutes. Hopefully, I'll be able to remember the correct turn into Paul's neighborhood this evening.
Paul and Nora are leaving for a long visit to the States on Thursday, so Sally and I will have the house to ourselves. There is a grocery store within easy biking distance, so it will be almost like having our own apartment. My only complaint about the house is that it's not sealed as well as Dorcas's and there are more mosquitoes inside. My bed has a net on it, so I'll be fine at night. The upshot is that they have a washing machine. The thought of either myself or one of the housekeepers washing my clothes by hand was rather upsetting. I didn't want to do it, but neither did I want to subject anyone else to it.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Saturday morning, I walked down to the CARE offices to meet up with Aba. People at CARE (but not Dorcas) were worried about me walking to the offices because I'm a small white girl from the US. What I think many people don't realize is that there are dangerous cities even in the First World. I want to be like, “People in Tanzania are just poor. In Worcester, not only are they poor, but they're also dealing with drugs.” I walk around Worcester during the day, and I'm damn sure going to walk around Dar. Take back the streets! Or something like that :) People on the streets in Dar are about 3000 times more friendly than in Worcester. I got more than a few Hujambos! and Habaris! from people who passed me, including a police man who politely inquired if I knew where I was going. I think during the 5 years I've lived in Worcester, not a single stranger on the street has ever given me a polite greeting.
Anyway, I was walking to the CARE offices to meet Aba. She had offered to take me around to the shopping centers in Dar. Aba is from Ghana and is going through a kind of mid-life crisis. We spent most of the morning talking about our favorite hobbies (she likes to make perfume and I like bread baking) and how sometimes we wished we could just drop everything and go work with our hands. The first place she took me, Shoppers Plaza, had a bookstore in it. I browsed the cookbooks and Aba was hunting for a book on perfumes that she had seen on a previous trip. The Plaza looked like a very small mall and the only other place of interest for me was a bakery. Our next stop was Sea Cliff Village, which has a grocery store that Aba likes. Finally, we visited the Slipway, which has a lot of tourist-y shops in it. The crafts are more expensive but probably of better quality than what can be found elsewhere.
I spent most of Sunday reading my copy of The Illuminatus! Trilogy, which is pretty much the exact opposite of the book I just finished, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. A shout-out to Maria for suppling the latter! Mille grazie!
I'm falling into a routine at the office. Today was pretty normal. I sat with a few of the Tanzanian interns during lunch. They asked me what I did this weekend and I told them. Afterwards, one of them, David, said that I had only seen the mzungu part of town and offered to take me around the “real Dar es Salaam.” 'Mzungu' basically means 'white person' and I would have to agree with him. I definitely only saw the white ex-pat part of town. The other intern, Godfry, mentioned that his family has hosted several Europeans before, so he knows about all the places tourists like to go. North of Dar, there are some interesting towns. There's one with the ruins of an old mosque and one that was the last place in Africa that thousands of captured people saw before being shipped off to a life of slavery. They both sound worth checking out. I looked into the price of a safari and they are rather prohibitive, so I think I'll have to be content with just going places with people from CARE.
The Country Director, Paul, offered to let me stay at his house for the remainder of the summer. Dorcas has company coming in a few weeks, so I've been looking for an alternative place to stay. I'm glad he took me in, since the cost of finding a place to live here probably ranks up there with Boston. Unfortunately, Paul and his wife are leaving for a 5 week vacation to the States on Thursday so I have to move in tomorrow. I've rather grown accustomed to Dorcas and her family. I will also miss Hawa's cooking :( Most of my stuff is now back in my suitcase, which I will bring with me to the office tomorrow morning. I hope my new bed is as comfortable as the one I'm sleeping on at Dorcas's. Given how cluttered my room in Worcester is, it still amazes me how most of the important things I own can fit in a single (albeit large) suitcase. At least it has wheels...
Friday, July 11, 2008
Everyone here is so friendly. Tanzanian culture really values politeness and I've come in contact with nothing but cheery smiles and a willingness to help. I'm rather pleased with my choice of an internship. I can only hope that when/if I get a real job in the Development world, it will be in a place similar to CARE.
Anyhoo, if you want to give me a call, email me and I'll send you my new number. You should probably only try with a calling card which lists cheap rates to Africa.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
What I'm eating
There are two main starches served here: ugali (cornmeal porridge) and pilau (spiced rice). I mentioned the word 'pilaf' today to Edson, but he had never heard it before. If my memory serves me, pilaf is a baked rice dish that originated in what is now Iran. Since Zanzibar used to be the home of a sultanate, it would not surprise me if pilaf was a regular item on the menu. Many of the words “borrowed” from other languages get altered slightly, so it's not a big jump from 'pilaf' to 'pilau.' Anyway, it's delicious. Pilau is generally eaten with 2-5 other dishes that are usually prepared in a sauce. So far I've had (I'm guessing on some of the ingredients): beans in a white sauce; broccoli and leeks in a peanut sauce; a potato, cauliflower, tomato and carrot curry; something that tasted like mung beans in sesame paste; spinach; peas in a mint sauce; and zucchini with tomatoes. The rice goes on the plate first, then a few spoonfuls from each of the other dishes, and finally it's all mixed together and eaten. There is also fruit served at every meal. I guess it's whatever the cook finds at the market that day. Last night Hawa served three different kinds of fruit plus chunks of avocado. Unlike Namibia, I haven't eaten a lot of meat since I got here, and frankly, I'm fine with that.
I'm sad that I won't be able to stay at Dorcas's house in August. She has another guest coming and CARE is arranging to find me another place to live. Hawa's cooking is pretty amazing and I will miss it. Rather than going out for lunch or having it catered, CARE has created a lunch club, or to be more precise a 'chakula' club. The fee for each month is 25,000/= which comes out to around $24. I bet you wish you could eat a homemade lunch everyday for the price of a little over one dollar. The ladies running the chakula club are pretty amazing cooks too. I almost wrote 'mamas running...' but that would have been incorrect. Mama is an N-class noun and is not pluralized, kind of in the way fish and deer are not pluralized. Mama wanapika chakula! By the way, Mama is what you use to refer to any woman between the ages of 20 and 60 and does not necessarily mean that the woman is a mother.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
July 8th
I met my supervisor, Edson, this morning and he took me around the office complex. Most of the buildings are small, with 3-4 offices in each building. It looks like CARE Tanz started small and then expanded slowly over the years. I think the best part was when he introduced me to the head of the Women and Girl's Empowerment program. Like everyone else, she was very pleased to meet me, but she confessed that she and Edson fought over who was going to get me as an intern. This made me laugh. Edson also spent part of the morning trying to find me a desk to work on, but wound up having to order one when no one had a spare.
I spent most of the day reading various reports and handbooks that Edson piled in front of me on CARE in general and the Governance division specifically. The governance program wants to promote “greater participation, transparency and accountability to planning.” This is a big task, but first everyone at CARE has to be on the same page. My internship will cover mostly internal work: ensuring that when CARE staff say they are “promoting good governance” they all mean the same thing. Edson made me a list of things that he wants me to help with while I'm here:
1. Edit existing draft governance materials
2. Assist in designing, developing and editing new governance materials
3. Assist in developing the governance information dissemination plan
4. Participate and assist in conducting governance capacity building events
5. Participate and assist in developing CARE Tanzania's governance programming strategy
I think that's a good amount of work to get done in two months :)
Monday, July 7, 2008
First update from Tanzania
The ride to Tanzania was nice. I watched a weird documentary on the European hedgehog before passing out for over four hours. I had originally intended to stay awake on this leg of my journey since it was daytime in my destination. However, my body felt that it was the wee hours of the morning and I wasn’t able to resist. When I woke up, I regretted not getting a window seat at this point since the plane was flying over the continent and I wasn’t able to see anything.
Upon arriving I was really glad that I applied for a visa before I left. There were probably over 100 people who had to wait for two clerks to process their applications. That definitely looked like it would be a horrendous experience after 22 hours of travel. I passed through passport inspection and luggage collection without a hitch. A man from CARE was waiting for me outside the airport and took me to where I’m staying. The house is just outside the city center and is cool and pleasant. Dorcas, my host, lives in the house with her daughter, her housekeeper Hawa and Hawa’s daughter. Dorcas is really nice and Ayeisha is really talkative. Hawa doesn’t speak much English and my Swahili is rather limited, but so far we’ve been able to communicate.
I went for a very short walk today around the neighborhood and down to the major road. Dorcas thinks I should buy a new sim card for my phone so I can use it in Tanzania. Luckily for me, Hawa has a phone charger that fits into mine and has the appropriate sized plug. I’ll see how this winds up working out. Dorcas wanted me to check out the northern Peninsula, a place called the Slipway, but it would have been difficult getting home without a working cell phone. She has a few trusted taxi drivers that she gave me the phone numbers for, which is similar to what my program in Namibia gave us.
Anyhoo, I’m really tired right now. Jetlag is really a pain. Today is a holiday, lucky for me, so tomorrow will be my first day in the office. Hopefully I will not wake up before the sun rises like I did this morning, though it was kind of cool to hear the Muslim call to worship echoing across the city.
