Nairobi: check. Next stop: Dodoma!

My visit to Nairobi, and news about moving to Dodoma

I am back in Dar after spending almost a week in Nairobi and a few days in Arusha. Nairobi was cold, and as my bus got closer and closer to the coast upon returning to Dar, I was shocked at how hot Dar was—I didn’t think I would have forgotten in only a week! I had a great time in Nairobi attending the Africa and Middle East Microfinance Summit. For 4 days, I attended lectures, seminars, and workshops starting in the mornings and lasting until the evenings. I learned a ton, and afterwards I was completely exhausted. There were lots of laudable people there—not only Muhammad Yunus, but also the president of Kenya, the Queen of Spain, the Princess of the Netherlands, the former president of Peru, the VP of The Gambia and the heads/ CEOs of basically all the big microfinance institutions. There were over 1500 delegates from about different 80 countries! I don’t know how to say this, but it was kind of a big deal. Oh, and I met Prof. Yunus and got a picture with him!

I was only a little excited...

Professor Yunus

I watched a screening of his new film "To Catch A Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America." I don't think it will be out in the States until September, but I highly recommend it!

This is me standing in front of Kenyatta International Conference Center

The four days of the conference flew by because we were so busy everyday. When I got to Arusha on Sunday afternoon (we came back on a more reliable bus and I reached Arusha after only 5 hours) I was thankful that I had time to just relax and recuperate. The best way to do this, of course, was to find myself some ice coffee—that actually had ice! I spent the rest of the day finishing my book and drinking coffee in a coffee shop.

That evening, I got a call from my MCC reps. I was in Arusha to meet with them, but they weren’t going to make it back to Arusha until late in the week so we had to have our meeting on the phone. I learned that they had just been in Dodoma, and the other MCC family who is working there wants me to come and join them to help with a project. They have tried to start a savings/loan program with a group of women from the church, but have failed. They want me to come and do some data collection about the situation—about the clients and their businesses—to see what can be improved to make the program successful. I am very excited about this, because I might actually be able to apply some of my newly acquired knowledge about micrfiance! I also just found out that I will be living in a house with two other volunteers from the states, I will have my own room, I’ll be living a simple 7-minute walk from the church, I get a bike if I want, and we do out own cooking! Sounds pretty good to me. I’ll be moving on May 1^st…

(Note: if you want to send me anything by mail, please don’t use my Dar address anymore. You can use the Arusha address that is on my prayer card, or hopefully I’ll find out a mailing address for Dodoma soon)

Pasaka

What did you do this Easter Weekend?

Sunday morning I woke up to sound of dumping rain and my host dad asking me if I was ready to go to church. I jumped out of bed, quickly ironed my clothes before putting them on, and dashed from the house to the car, trying not to get too wet. We weren’t going to our usual church this morning in Tegeta. Instead, everyone from our church was going to the sister congregation on the other side of Tegeta, which I had not been to before. We turned off the main road and started off down a bumpy, muddy, pothole-filled road (typical for TZ). When we arrived, I hardly realized it because this was no church at all—it was a half-constructed cement structure with tarps strung up to make a shelter in the front. Was this the Goba church, I wondered? I knew it had to be because there were plastic chairs already lined up, the speakers were being wired to the electric keyboard (a must for churches here) and a pulpit was placed in the front. It was still raining, but not as hard. I took a seat and waited for everything to start… I’ve started to learn that nothing and no one runs on time here, and waiting is always expected. Eventually, more people arrived and took their seats, and the choir arrived all wearing matching t-shirts. The service started, and lasted for 4 hours. The choir sang and danced, we read numerous passages from the gospel, a sermon was given, and we even sang some familiar Easter hymns (all in Swahili, of course). It was unlike any Mennonite Easter service I have attended, yet I couldn’t help but compare it my church at home—here we were, singing traditional Mennonite hymns outside while it was raining! Back in Seattle, we always start Easter Sunday with a ‘sunrise’ service at Matthews beach, and it’s often raining. Except here in Tanzania there were chickens running through the service, not Canadian geese…and after church we ate ugali, not mashed potatoes.

The Tegeta chior singing and dancing in unison

I had no work on Friday or Monday, so I had some free time this weekend. I watched the whole Lord of the Rings series back-to-back and did origami while I watched.

I made all these paper cranes with less than a sheet of origami paper J.

Changes...

This past week was busy, but that is a good thing! I’ve been talking with my supervisor here, and Maguy, the MCC rep for TZ, came to Dar to assess my situation and also to check out one of the projects, the OVC program in Nyantira, in order to set up the criteria for funding from MCC Global Family.

Before Maguy came, Migire, my ‘supervisor’, came into the office and we had a talk. I told him flat out that I am not really doing anything because it’s hard to just come into an office and “plan projects” for the Diocese. There is nothing really substantial for me to be doing in the office other than secretarial/ computer things for the others at the church. I’m not really being put to use. He agreed, and said that we are going to change the situation before Maguy comes so that I could have something to report about to her. I thought that was a good idea. We decided that since Isack and I can’t do much good for the Diocese just sitting in the office here in Upanga, we need to learn about the other congregations. We formulated an action plan to do a feasibility study/ survey of the whole Eastern Diocese by visiting each different congregation. Then, once we learn about what each specific area wants and needs, then we can better help them to plan economic and development projects.

I feel good about this plan—doing a feasibility study is what I have been suggesting since I’ve been here. The first and main project that I helped plan in the first few months I was here ended up failing because I had no idea about the situation of the area and we went ahead and planned a project without even talking to that specific community first. We had a great project planned to promote agricultural activities among youth, but when we introduced the project to the area none of the youth wanted to participate because they already had a business driving motorcycles. If we would have done a feasibility study first, we would have known this.

Development assistance can’t work well when you try to impose a plan on the people receiving assistance. It needs to come from the individuals themselves. It’s really just basic supply and demand—if there is no demand, there shouldn’t be any supply or else it will go to waste. On the other hand, if there is a demand for something, an appropriate supply can be provided and put to use. Not working from the bottom up is the main reason why foreign aid has largely failed because donors set criteria that they see fit, rather than finding out what each specific area needs and wants. I’m reading “The White Man’s Burden” by William Easterly right now and he interesting explains this failure of foreign aid.

On Friday when Maguy came, we met and talked about what my options are for the remainder of my time here. As things are right now, I have not really had much to do on a day to day basis (or even weekly basis). So we decided that MCC could send me to other areas for a few weeks at a time to do random assignments or check out other projects, or here in Dar I could continue to help Isack and work the new project that we have planned. After I go to Nairobi for the micro-credit conference, it’s also possible that I could go to other areas to see if I could somehow help start micro-credit programs. So, as of right now, nothing specifically is changing for me, but I think that I will find myself being more busy for the next 4 months.

On Saturday, we well went to Nyantira so that Maguy could survey the OVC program there. MCC has agreed to support a three year program that will help about 50 orphans and vulnerable children through helping to pay and provide for school expenses, including school fees, uniforms, books, pens, etc. It also will support a Saturday program that has been running for a while where the kids come and have some class sessions, are given a meal, soap, and play games. When we came on Saturday, we played some games with the kids, handed out some treats, listened to them introduce themselves in English, and ate a meal with them. Right now, the evangelist at the church has been running the program mostly out of his own pocket (which is very small). His wife and a few other women are in charge of the meal and watching some of the younger kids. These women also go into the community to find OVC and promote them to come to the Saturday program.

These are some of the kids, happy after eating lunch and curious about mzungu with camera

This is a picture of the evangelist and the women who run the OVC program

We started our feasibility study and visited our first congregation on Sunday. Migire sat Isack and I in the very front row and gave a special introduction for us explaining that we are the Economic and Planning Department for the Diocese and made us sound all important and official. We each introduced ourselves, and as usual people were surprised that mzungu can speak Swahili kidogo! After a three+ hour service, we met with a small group of people to talk about what their current projects at the church are and what ideas they have. They already have a choir for the youth, and a women’s group that does palliative care, but they said that both of those programs could be improved. They also had a few ideas for other projects, such as starting a fish farm or used book store. It’s going to be a challenge visiting every church and trying to help every area… I am worried that when we come, people will automatically assume that we have money to help them and will expect fast results, both of which I’m afraid are not true. I know KMT doesn’t have money, and I really don’t see fast results happening. I just hope we aren’t a disappointment, and can actually be effective in helping them realize their demands and plan development projects.

Sometimes I get tired about only blogging only about myself, so on a completely different note I have some family updates: My oldest brother, Danny, just completed his Masters!! My other brother and his wife just celebrated their 2^nd wedding anniversary! My mom just got back from Haiti visiting my cousin with her two sisters, all 4 of them are nurses (I’m the only female on that side of the family that isn’t a nurse, actually…). My cousin is working at an orphanage for babies, so my aunts and mom spent a few weeks helping take care of some of the babies. My dad just arrived in Uganda, so we’ll be neighbors for a few weeks (unfortunately his assignment leaves no room for him to fly to see his daughter…). And, I just found out that my aunt Dora, who is now working for CDC in Cambodia, is coming to Tanzania in May so I will get to see her then! These are all very exciting updates—I am so very proud of each and everyone in my family and I love them and miss them lots :)

It's Been a While!

Sorry it has been so long since my last update. This is due mainly to the fact that I have not been up to much lately and the Internet here continues to be spotty.

The other week I was in Arusha with the other MCC team-members for meetings and a little break from our positions. It was so great to reconnect with familiar faces and be able to spend a few days not sweating continuously! I made good use of my free time there by drinking iced coffee, eating ice cream and buying ripped DVDs where each disc has about 15 different movies. I figure that will keep me entertained for a while, even if some of the movies are terrible quality or have Chinese subtitles… One night I even made brownies (thanks to my wonderful mom who sent the mix) with Cara, which was such a treat!

The meetings that we had together went well, and it really helped me to reflect on what I am doing here. To be honest these past few months have been really hard on me, mostly because I haven’t really been involved with much at work. It’s been difficult reasoning why I should travel such a long distance every day when I end up doing nothing significant at work… I’m afraid that I have lost a lot of motivation and have been questioning the significance of my service.

I talked with the MCC staff a little about my challenges and how I feel like I am not contributing much, so they are going to re-evaluate my position. I might end up relocating somewhere for last months, or if I stay here in Dar they are going to make sure that I have something to keep busy with. I’m not sure what this will lead to, but I’ll be sure to update more when I find out.

I think I am realizing that serving for only one year I will not be able to “change the world” like Phil Dog (SPU’s President) inspired all of us SPU students to do (I think I am definitely “engaging the culture” though). I am seeing that my time here will end up changing me more than anyone/ anything else, and this has been hard for me to admit since I came here to “serve others.” As challenging as it is to live and work here, I know I will be grateful for the experiences I am having but it will be a lot easier to fully respect this afterwards! Thanks everyone, for your support and encouragement:)

Activities Update

This Saturday, I went with my coworkers to check on some of the church’s projects. We went to the Mennonite church in Segerea first, where we received funding for a project called Women and Water for Life. The funding is helping to pay for the drilling of a borehole so that the community can have access to clean, safe water. The plan is to have a group of women from the church be in charge of the water and sell it to their community.

We went next to the Mennonite church in Nyantira where there is a running program for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) on Saturdays. We peeked in their classroom, where the children are learning elementary skills as well as life skills.

They also receive a meal if they attend the classes. We hope to be able to provide these kids with school materials (uniforms, notebooks, etc) so that they can go to school on a regular basis. During their break, we watched the boys play futbol while the girls busied themselves with a jump rope.

Last June, a revolving loan program started for the women who are taking care of the OVC called VICOBA (Village Community Bank). This way, the women can take small loans in order to help them make an income, either by starting a business or improve an income generating activity that they already are involved in. They have weekly meetings on Tuesdays, so I hope to go to one of them so that I can learn more about this program.

In other news, my host dad hit a motorcycle and knocked two guys off it on Sunday. Luckily they weren’t hurt too bad—just some scraped knees and elbows, and of course a commotion. Drivers here are insane and the roads are crazy, but I still think India’s roads are worse. (Especially when you are riding in a speeding bus high up on a mountain-pass road in the fog with big construction trucks going to opposite way…)

The little dog at my house thinks I am it’s best friend because I feed it as much as possible (usually secretly, because my host family doesn’t feed the dogs—they just give scraps) and sometimes I purposely take a piece of meat that has a lot of fat on it so I can give it to the puppy. Everyday when I leave or come from the house, it gets so excited to see me. It even sneaks into the house when the door is left open and tries to come find me in my room! Except sometimes when it gets excited it pees, which isn’t so cute.

The avocado tree in the front of the house is starting to bear fruit, so hopefully I’ll get to eat those soon. Unfortunately I think that mango season is nearing its end because the trees are starting to look emptier. But I will continue eating as many mangoes as possible, and drinking cold, fresh juice made from mangoes in our own yard everyday from a metal cup.

Back to Work

The New Year has started off pretty well so far here in Dar (is it really 2010 already?!). Although, I mist admit, it has been hard to transition back into work, daily daladala commutes, and life with my Tanzanian family after having so much fun with all my visitors from home. And it doesn’t help that I think I have had fleas (I keep getting lots of itchy bites and seeing little black, jumpy bugs). But they’re mostly gone now, I think, because the kitten that gave them to me died…

I think my work with the church is going to start changing because we have a new supervisor. This will be a good thing for our project planning team, because lately we have been completely unproductive and at a lost as to what to do. I am hoping that with this new supervisor, we will receive more guidance. We have many projects that require a lot of work, including constructing a girls’ school, proving palliative care services, establishing a health center, and digging bore holes to provide a water source. My tasks are mostly on the planning side, writing proposals and such. Thus far, the one project that I put most my effort into (hoping to provide income generating activities through agriculture for youth) has pretty much fallen through, which is a little disappointing. But I have high hopes that with our new leadership we’ll be able to move some of the other projects along. The church is also wanting someone to come and teach English (they asked me… but I don’t know how I feel about it), so if you know of anyone that wants to come volunteer in Tanzania let me know!

There is one new thing that I am very excited about: In April, I am going to Nairobi, Kenya to attend the Regional Microcredit Summit! For those of you that know me well probably already know that throughout college I grew increasingly interested in microcredit and what it can do to benefit communities—especially women and their children. At this summit, I will get to listen to lots of famous speakers (including Muhammad Yunus) and learn about what is new in the realm of microcredit, and more specifically what is working/ not working in the regions of East Africa and the Middle East. It should be a great learning experience and I hope that I can gain some insightful information that will help me down the line. My coworker, Isack is also coming with me.

Fun fact about Tanzania: no matter what the occasion or event, it is always appropriate to burst into song and dance that can last for an extended period of time. That’s why events can go on and on and on. For example, last weekend, Veronica (my other coworker) and I went to this women’s empowerment session, and at random times the speaker would shout out ‘can women do it or can’t they?’ And the crowd in response would say ‘yes women can!’ And of course, there was a DJ who played music at every possible transition, which in turn caused everyone to get excited and start dancing. Often when the DJ started playing a song, everyone would get out of their seats and dance up to the front. One time that this happened, Vero and I joined the other women and we all started dancing around in a circle at the front of the venue. A few women that were good at dancing were in the middle of the circle, doing crazy dance moves. One of the woman in the middle decided that I should also be in the middle of the circle, so she pulled me in and I tried my hardest not to look like a mzungu who can’t dance (which I definitely am, especially compared to these amazing African dancers!). I‘m pretty sure I made a fool of my self, but it was really funny and at least I made everyone laugh.

Happy New Year!

It has been a while since my last post, but that is only because I have been busy the last month entertaining and having fun with all of my visitors! First, Chris came, shortly followed by my whole family, and then finally Sarah J., one of my best friends joined my family. I’ve spent the last month discovering some of things that Tanzania is famous for: its national parks, its beaches, and its mountains. I feel so blessed to have such an amazing family and friends. Being so far away from everyone has really made me appreciate how much I love everyone that is supporting me back home!

Together with my family and Sarah (unfortunately Chris couldn’t join us) we attempted to hike up the tallest peak in Africa—Mt. Kilimanjaro. I call it a hike and not a climb, because it really was quite luxurious and nothing like my usual mountain experiences. We slept in huts, were served all our meals (including morning tea brought to us in bed!), and had most of our things carried for us by porters (I think we had 27 people cater to us, including cooks, guides, and porters!). Also, we were forced to walk at the pace set by our guides, which was extremely pole pole (very slow). Whenever one of us tried to pick up the pace a little, our guides would insist that we walk slowly to conserve our energy because we were on a serious mountain. Even though our guides gave strange advice sometimes, we really enjoyed walking with them. They chanted Kuche Kuche (our team name) as we walked past other groups to let them know that our team was VIP.

We spent three days leisurely trekking up to the base of the mountain, and on the fourth day we reached Kibo (the high base camp) in the afternoon and continued up to the summit that night. Unfortunately, it was here at Kibo that some of us from our group fell sick with “the plague” as we called it. Benny and Sarah were throwing up uncontrollably… our guides insisted that it was altitude sickness, but we know that it was either food poisoning or from bad water. They were too weak to even think about moving, so they couldn’t leave with us when it was time to go at 11pm that night (which is too bad, because they for sure would have raced up the mountain ahead of us if they weren’t sick!). As we stepped outside our hut ready to start for the summit, my mom started throwing up too! But, she still wanted to try for the top (what a stud!) so we started climbing. After a few minutes, though, she still felt awful so had to turn around. So, it was now up to Sarah J, Danny, Alison, my dad and I to represent the others and make it to the top.

As we climbed up and up in the dark, our guides serenaded us with songs in Swahili, all about us safely reaching Uhuru, the summit. Sure enough, after several hours of moving pole pole up the mountain, the rest of us all reached the top (but I won’t mention who made it up first…). It was amazing being on the top at 5895 meters, my new highest point! I just wish that the others who were sick could have been there with us.

We got back to Moshi on Christmas Eve, and the next day for Christmas we went to Arusha National Park for a one day safari. We saw tons of animals, but mostly lots of giraffes and Colobus monkeys.

My favorite was Bambi, a tiny little dik-dik (a small antelope). The next few days before my family had to leave, we went to spend some time to relax on the east coast. It was hard to say goodbye to my family, especially after we had such a good time and they all spoiled me with lots of treats! Sarah J. stayed a few days after my family, so I got to show her my work and what living with my host family is like. She left early this morning, so now I have to get used to being all on my own again!

Even though it’s going to be hard to adjust again after such a nice break, I feel refreshed, encouraged, and am looking forward to new opportunities at my work and continuing with my service term. (For some more recent pictures, check out my Facebook album).