Some Things I've Learned about Tanzania

1.     In public, it's OK for boys to hold hands with boys, and girls to hold hands with girls, but boys and girls don’t hold hands with each other.  So different from Western culture.

2.      The Tanzanian people are very religious.  There are Catholics, Protestants, Seventh Day Adventists, Muslims, and every other religion you can name.  They all live side by side and even intermarry with no one judging the other.  Other countries should look to Tanzania as a model for getting along no matter what religion you are, and living in peace.

3.      Dala Dalas are minibuses (glorified minivans) that everyone uses as public transportation.  They usually have seats for 16 but stuff as many as 25 people in them. When they drive by you see people hanging out the windows and sitting on top of each other in contorted positions.  On my last dala dala ride I sat pretty much on top of a woman with a live chicken on her lap and next to a nun!

4.      The poor people including our students wear only used clothing.  There are shops all over town selling used clothing and shoes (and other things like curtains, backpacks, etc.).  It comes from people all over the world.  You probably didn’t realize that when you put your used things in the box at the recycle center that someone in Africa might end up wearing them.  Just walking around town I spotted a man in a New England Patriots shirt as well as several people in US college T shirts.  Because of the poverty they also can only afford to buy used bras and underwear L

5.      There are a lot of people from India here.  They own the supermarkets, restaurants, and many of the shops.  They are the people with the money driving the nice, big cars (most Tanzanians don’t own a car).  They do not pay their Tanzanian employees very well.

6.      The roads are horrible.  There are a few main roads that are paved but even those have speed bumps every half mile or so to keep people from speeding. The unpaved roads are dirt, rocks, and lots of ruts.  The first thing to go on cars here is the suspension.

7.      The food here is actually pretty good, and great if you are vegetarian.  There are fresh fruits and veggies like mangos, bananas, watermelons, limes, apples, passion fruit, coconuts, avocados, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, peppers, etc.  There are dairy farms nearby so there is cheese, milk, and yogurt, and lots of chickens so eggs are plentiful.  There is peanut butter!   Most people shop at their neighborhood market and bakery.

8.      The weather is beautiful.  The temperature during the day is in the 80s and pretty comfortable.  There is usually somewhat of a breeze.  As long as you’re not schlepping around town with a load of groceries it’s great.  At night it cools down so sleeping is fine.  Air conditioning is only for the wealthy.

9.      The electricity goes off a lot.  There is actual rationing so just about every day it’s off for some period of time.  No one complains, many of the shop owners have generators, and everyone else just deals.  The majority of poor people don’t have electricity so it makes no difference to them.

10.  Most important of all, the Tanzanian people believe that education is the key to their future.  Even public schools cost money so it is a hardship for the poor to send their children.  It may cost only $20 to $30 a year per child but if you only earn about $1 a day, then it might not be possible to send any or all of your children.  The students at GHTA desperately want their children to get a better education.  They realize that it’s the only way for them to get a good job and escape the extreme poverty they were born into.

 

 

 

 

The Best Dressmaker in Moshi

Before I arrived in Tanzania for my volunteer experience Monika told me that it's easy to have clothing made at very reasonable prices.  Now that I'm here I understand that it's not only true, it is a must! The person who makes the clothing is Catherine, a former GHTA student, a truly wonderful person, and quite a character.

 



The dressmaking process begins by going to a shop in town to buy fabric.  There are many shops with shelves overflowing with bright, colorful fabrics called kangas and kitenge. A kanga is lightweight like hankerchief material and a kitenge is more like linen.  The fabric is woven in Tanzania and most have batik or tie dye patterns.   Some also have printed words on them with inspirational quotes in Swahili.  The fabric is precut into large rectangular pieces.  Kangas are often worn as a skirt by wrapping it around the waist and tied at the side, wrapped around the top and tied at one shoulder, or wrapped around the head as a scarf.

For my dress I chose a bright teal/lime green kitenge.  We brought the fabric to Catherine's small home in Njoro, the second poorest neighborhood in Moshi. Her sewing machine is in a tiny room at the front of her house. Catherine handed me a lined notebook, turned it to a blank page, and told me to draw what I wanted the dress to look like.  Monika and I drew a quick, very rough design, Catherine broke out a tape measure and measured me, and that was it.  She said come back in a couple days to pick it up.

The picture above is the finished product...total cost about $15.  She also made me a matching shoulder bag with the leftover fabric for $3. Catherine is a wonderful warm-hearted woman who always greets you with a smile and has you laughing within 30 seconds...even if you don't understand her Swahili/English.  She is definitely one of my favorite people in Moshi!

Four Wazungu and a Wedding

 

Last Saturday night, Monika, John, Jenny and I went to a Tanzanian wedding. It was the wedding of Peter, a former GHTA student and now a carpenter, to Jennifa (that is the correct spelling) the woman he has lived with for several years and the mother of his 2 children (one of them named after Monika).  We asked Monika about Tanzanian weddings and she didn’t sound very excited about going.  She said we should skip the service because it’s long and Tanzanians really get into church.  She said the reception is also long, with lots of dancing, a buffet, lots of speeches…and cake. 

 Our taxi driver dropped us off in the parking lot of the Spring Source Restaurant and it was overflowing with Tanzanians. Us 4 Wazungu (white people) felt a little out of place.  As we walked to the entrance the Tanzanians cleared a path for us (as if we were celebrities) and we went in.

 

We were offered drinks (bottles of soda or beer) and then went to sit down.  There were tables like at a normal American/Western wedding but also seats in rows around the back.  We opted for the row seats.  There was a Master of Ceremonies who got the crowd (maybe 200- 250 people) riled up, and of course, he spoke entirely in Swahili so only Monika had a clue what he was saying.  He called the parents of the bride and groom to the middle of the dance floor to do a dance, and not a slow one.  And they really got down!

 

After the bride and groom entered, with much fanfare and dancing, they thanked their parents, and next thing we knew the camera spotlight was on the 4 of us, and people were gesturing for us to stand up.  It took us awhile to figure out what they wanted us to do, but we finally caught on, stood up, looked into the extremely bright spotlight with “deer in the headlights” expressions, and waved…the 4 wazungu.

 Next came the dancing.  All the guests formed a long line, dancing with their bottle of whatever drink they had in their hand, and went up to the front where the bride and groom were ready to say cheers with their bottles.  The 4 wazungu awkwardly joined the line.  

Then came the cake or what we thought was the cake.  It was actually a goat, completely cooked over a fire pit, but with the head completely intact and legs pointed straight up, covered with orange slices.  It was a little disturbing to see so I tried not to look at it. The wedding party fed pieces of goat to each other and the parents. 

 

 

 

Jenny and I had to use the ladies room and all I will say about the rest room is that it was not easy to do wearing a dress.  When we got back to our seats, before we could sit down, John said, “you need to walk up to the front and get cake from Peter”.  Jennie didn’t hear John say “walk” so she danced her way up while I walked behind her (Jennie and I have similar views on dancing, she was not happy when she found out she could have walked!).  We were the only ones going up to the front…all eyes in the hall were on the 2 of us.  When we got to the front, Peter held out a fork with a piece of cake (real cake, not goat, thank goodness) and put it in each of our mouths (feeding a small piece of cake to another person is a Tanzanian tradition). 

 

 

We arrived at 7:00 pm and by now it was almost 11:00.  We could barely keep our eyes open but we couldn’t leave until we gave them their gift (we opted for the card with cash).  One of the ushers was a lovely albino man who spoke good English.  I think he was put in charge of us because he would come to the row behind us, lean over and tell us what we were supposed to do (probably called to duty after we were clueless when we were supposed to stand up).  The gift giving began with the families of the bride and groom dancing their way to the front, waving their gifts over their heads and presenting them to Peter and Jennifa.  Our usher advised us we were next.  So the 4 wazungu, led by Monika, danced our way up to the front, Monika waving the envelope.  When we got to the front the MC handed Monika the microphone for her to give a speech.  When she started speaking in Swahili the crowd broke out in applause.  Our usher pulled me aside to tell me  we needed to get on the stage with Peter and Jennifa for a photo.  So the 4 wazungu did.  We were the only ones who had a photo taken with the bride and groom (besides the parents).

So the 4 wazungu went to a wedding and were treated like celebrities.  Not bad! 

Meeting the Girls

On Monday, Monika and I had a driver take us to the Kisomachi Secondary School to visit Neema and Gloria, the former GHTA students and the girls I’ve been sponsoring for the last couple of years.  Kisomachi is a Catholic boarding school for boys and girls.  It’s about 1 ½ hours outside of Moshi and the countryside on the way out was beautiful.  There are tall, green mountains and little villages along the way.  I also saw a couple of extremely large Baobab trees (they are the ancient trees you’ve probably seen in/on National Geographic).  Of course I was disturbed by the many motorcyles (really dirt bikes) going by with a man, a woman, and a small baby on them…no helmets, of course.  When we got off the main road onto the extremely bumpy and rutted dirt road, there were school children who stared at us mzengu  (white people) as well as women with enormous baskets of fruit on their heads (not sure how they were doing it without hands). 

 

After about 20 minutes of off-roading (in a minivan!) we made it to the school.  We chatted with the Headmaster who was quite talkative and proud of himself.  He said he came to the school last year and made many changes.  Monika asked him about what kind of changes and he gave us this song and dance about how when a student has a discipline problem, they sit them down and talk to them, they communicate.  We were both a little skeptical. But he spoke excellent English so we were encouraged by that.

The girls came to the Reception area to meet us.  They both came running up to us and gave us big hugs!  It was a wonderful moment. We asked the girls if we could see their classrooms and dormitory.  The classroom was pretty basic with old wood desks and a water stain on the ceiling.  Monika explained that you really can't compare the classroom with what you would expect in the US.  The girls were in the middle of taking their exams to pass Form 2 (9th grade) and must pass to move on to Form 3.   There are exams every 2 years so their next will be after Form 4.We asked one of the girls' teachers how the girls were doing and he said they were doing fine.  So we expect them to pass their exams with no problem!

 

 

 

The girls' took us to their dormitory located behind the classrooms.  It was bascially a large room with a cement floor filled with 3 rows of 10 bunkbeds.  It was extremely stark and the rows were separarted by maybe 2 feet at the most. We were happy that Neema and Gloria are bunkmates.  Then we went to the school library where I gave the girls gift bags with some body wash, Goldfish crackers, and a couple of other little things.  They were very interested in the Goldfish!  We talked about school and if they are happy.  Neema was a little more shy than Gloria but they both spoke in English so I was impressed.  We asked them what their favorite class was and they both said Book Keeping.  Neema said she wants to go into business and Gloria wants to be a lawyer.  Monika gave them a talk about staying away from the boys...and they were both so cute, "OK, no boys", they told us.  Neema said she likes Rihanna and Gloria likes Beyonce...I guess teenage girls really are the same no matter where they live.  

 

It was wonderful to finally meet the girls after sponsoring their education for 2 years.  I look forward to seeing them progress over the next few years.  I am confident that they have bright futures ahead of them.

 

Trying to Change the Culture

We had an incident at school today.  Monika overheard a group of women teasing a student, because she doesn’t have children.  They basically told her over and over that there was something wrong with her because she didn’t have children.  The student is a petite, very quiet, soft-spoken woman in her 30s.  Monika was appalled by the conversation, intervened on the student’s behalf, and decided to have an all-women’s meeting after class.

We all gathered in the English classroom and Monika gave a speech in English and Fatihia, a female translator, translated it into Swahili for the women.  Monika spoke of the incident and why it wasn’t acceptable at GHTA.  She said “Here at GHTA all of us are equal.  It doesn’t matter if you are married. It doesn’t matter if you are not married. It doesn’t matter if you have children.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t have children. Here we are defined by what we have in our hearts and in our heads.  That is all that matters. You have difficult lives. You are strong women. You should be supporting each other, and helping each other so that all of you can succeed.”  It was a moving and powerful speech.

 

The women seemed to get it.  In a big voice at the end of the Speech, the student who was being teased said “Thank you”.  Women in Tanzania have a long way to go before they catch up to the parts of the world where women are respected and treated as equals.  Monika and GHTA are doing their part to help the process along.

 

Teaching

Monday was the first day of my teaching career and I was a nervous wreck!  Currently at GHTA there are 3 classes, English (Jenny is an ESL teacher in Belgium so she has that covered), Math (John is an engineer so he has that covered), and Business.  Erin is leaving on Friday so she is just helping the slower students keep up with their classes.  So I am the new Business teacher…and of course, I know nothing about Business.  The plan was that I would observe Monika teach the first day and then I would be on my own.  Definitely the sink or swim method!

Luckily I have a translator in my class since my Swahili is extremely limited.  Basically I know how to say Thank you very much (Asante sana) and Hello (Si jambo).  But wouldn’t it be my luck that the translator, who normally does the Business classes, Herman, came down with a toothache and hasn’t been in class since I started.  Instead I have a wonderful translator named Raheemu, who is in his mid-twenties, speaks excellent English, and has a great sense of humor.  Our first class together was a complete comedy show because I was supposed to teach the class using a complicated chart of products, selling prices, purchase prices, and inventory, and it was entirely in Swahili!  We muddled through but it was painful! 

 

My students come from the poorest of the poor in Tanzania.  Many of them live in one room houses with no electricity or running water.  They are mostly women, some as old as their late 50s, and as young as mid-20s.  There are also several men and most of them are between 25 and 35 years old.  They are all serious about doing well in school and work hard to understand what is being taught.  And they are all so polite and friendly. 

 

 

 

Just hearing the stories about their lives is heartbreaking.  Many of them were not able to go to school past the 7^th grade because their parents couldn’t afford it so it’s been many years since they have sat in a classroom.  Many of the women have husbands who drink too much or beat them.  Tanzania is a patriarchal society and beating your wife is an accepted practice.  It is a hardship for many to even come to class every day.  But they all manage to show up each morning with their homework done and ready to learn more.

 

 

Day one...Lots to Do

I arrived at the volunteer house at around 10:00 pm Saturday night.  The other volunteers stayed up until I got there to meet me...it was much appreciated. The other volunteers are Jenny and John from Belgium/England and Erin from Australia/Peru.  They were all friendly and welcoming and within minutes telling stories of things that happened while volunteering at GHTA.  We were all in stitches and I felt comfortable and at home right away.

Monika showed me around the house and to my very own room.  I was quite happy about that!   There are bunk beds in each room with mosquito netting around the beds….definitely not something I’m used to.  Monika explained that you get into bed, pull the mosquito netting all around the bed, and then tuck it in.  I was very proud of myself the first night when I got myself all tucked in until I realized that I left the light on L The switch was across the room near the door…so I had to un-tuck the net, get out of bed, and then do it all over again.  Now I take my headlamp into the bed with me J

I thought I would have trouble waking up on Sunday morning because of the time change and jet lag but I had no problem.   The first night there were dogs barking and sometimes loud music playing at all hours.  Also, with Tanzania having many people of the Muslim faith (Moshi is a mix of Muslim and Christian with a few Hindus/Sikhs thrown in) there was a “call to prayer” at around 4:30 am (I’ve been told that this happens at random times so you never know when the voice over the loud speakers will interrupt your sleep!).  And then there are the roosters!  They are at the house next door (and the houses are close together) and they start crowing as early as 3:30 am and they are loud!  So I guess I can thank them for me not getting jetlag and slipping into the East African time zone with no problems.

Sunday was a busy day.  Jenny, Monika, and I walked into town.  We went to the Kilimanjaro Coffee Shop for lunch, a regular hangout for Westerners.  The menus were in English and it looked a lot like an American coffee shop.  I had an avocado salad, bread, and passion fruit juice to drink.   The meal cost around $5...a definite bargain. Then we went to buy groceries.  The favorite grocery was closed because it was Sunday so we went to Nakumart (a big Kenyan grocery chain) and we might as well have been in a Hannaford store.  It was a little smaller but it was clean, the selection was good, and there was a lot of help available if you had questions.  The thing that was unusual about the Nakumart was that there was an upstairs that had every household item you could imagine…pots, pans, furniture, TVs, and appliances.  Monika was mesmerized by the washing machines…the volunteer house has no washing machine.  It’s a washtub and manual labor for all of us!  Glad I brought so many pairs of underwear!

Sunday afternoon one of the former GHTA students who works at a salon in Moshi came to the house to give us pedicures.  Her name is Lisa and she is in her mid-twenties.  Monika told us that the woman she works for pays her very low wages so Lisa works for herself on the weekends to earn extra money.  Someday she wants to open her own salon.  She worked on us for around 3 hours straight, most of the time sitting on a hard tile floor.  And the cost was only around $3.50 each.  I am now sporting some lovely purple nails!

The only downside to the day was that the electricity was off for much of the day as well as the water.  The headlamps that I brought as a gift to everyone came in handy the very first night! I brought an extra one and Monika put it on our cook, Margareth, so she would have light to make us dinner (using the gas stove, luckily!).

Getting to Moshi

The thing I was most nervous about on my trip to Africa was actually getting there.  I am here and now I know there was nothing to worry about, it was extremely easy to get here.

I got on my flight in Boston, and surprisingly the flight to Amsterdam was only 6 hours long ( a very good tailwind!).  It was much shorter than I expected.  I sat next to a nice man from the Netherlands named Hans (not kidding!).  He was in Boston for work and said he really liked it (even before I told him that I was from there).  He told me some wonderful things about Amsterdam and insisted that the next time I go I must stay for more than 2 hours (my layover). I promised him that I would.

As soon as I got off the plane at the Amsterdam Airport a lovely young woman was waiting to tell people where to get their connecting flight (they don’t call them gates, they are piers).  The Amsterdam airport is very modern, clean, and nice with a shopping mall in the middle. If I were a shopper I would have loved it. I found my pier with no problem.

The gate area was filled with people of many nationalities but they all appeared to be going to Tanzania for a safari. And I was amazed at how many elderly people were there…several pulled out gallon size Ziploc bags filled with bottles of medication.  After seeing that I knew I would be fine…how bad could Tanzania be if unhealthy seniors were traveling there! The plane was completely full, the KLM flight attendants were wonderful, service was great, and they fed us every couple of hours.  I didn’t do a lot of sleeping, I’m just not a good plane sleeper.  But all in all it was a good trip. Much better than I anticipated.

We arrived in Tanzania about 8 ½ hours later.  I had to wait in line to get a Visa and everyone in line was shocked that the Americans had to pay $100 when people arriving from other countries only had to pay $50.  Not sure why but it’s probably to make up for all those rude, arrogant Americans, or maybe they think all Americans are rich.  After getting the Visa it was off to Immigration.    Finally, I made it to the baggage area where my suitcase was waiting for me.

Monika, the head of the NGO I am volunteering at, was there to meet me as I made my way out of the airport.  I got in the minivan taxi with Monika and my luggage and off we went.  So here I am…in Africa!  Much more to follow…..