Back at it again

Karibu Tena! [welcome again :) ]


A year ago today I was wrapping up my 3rd year undergrad at Queen's, packing to move home for a week, and preparing for my 8-week trip to Morogoro, Tanzania.  I am happy to say that it's happening all over again!


Right now I am currently wrapping up my 4th year undergrad at Queen's (graduating, eeek!) with a final presentation tomorrow, then have a RezStaff banquet, and move back to Cornwall, only to get on a plane Sunday for Zanzibar, Tanzania.  I have been presented with so much opportunity and adventures in the last two years of my life and I have so many people to thank. 


My amazing parents, my fantastic brother, and superb extended families. My incredible and extraordinary love, Brent. His wonderful family. I am surrounded by so many wonderful, loving people, and it's such a blessing; even though many think I'm 'crazy' for leaving again, thanks for supporting me through and through.  I love you all, and cannot thank each and every one of you enough. 


So, here I go again. It's a little different this time.  Last year, I volunteered and was considered a Youth Ambassador and we did lots of teaching and outreach on many different topics and in many different settings.  We worked in conjunction with Faraja Trust Fund in Morogoro.  This year I'm volunteering again, however I am a Youth Innovator.  I am working with ZANGOC (Zanzibar NGO Cluster for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control), this time and will be working in the organization on Gender Equity Programming.  I do not know a whole lot at this moment, but as I know more, you will as well.


This is how I will be keeping you updated!  Hopefully I will be posting frequently about what I am up to. I am taking my computer with me this year and will have more internet access. 


Wish me luck, keep me in your prayers, and see you in six weeks! 


(I've gotta brush up on my Swahili)


Badaye Kidogo,


J

Kwaheri (goodbye)

This is my last weekend in Tanzania!

Wednesday afternoon we had our graduation ceremony for HBC and Chamwino english and computer classes.  We printed off these fancy certificates with their pictures and names on them that said they completed and english and computer course and listed all the different elements.  Then we had some soda and hung out with them for a couple of hours.

Our HBC class is 9-15, but the Chamwino students are older from 18-30.  It was a really great afternoon! We took lots of pictures and videos and said A LOT of goodbyes... but I managed to not cry!!  Those kids are so dedicated and amazing.  They all put in a lot of effort always and tried their best.  The last two or three weeks they really started to come out of their shells, speaking more english and just having fun with us and I'm really sad that just as it is starting to happen we have to leave.

Thursday night we said goodbye to Frankie and Magunda.  We gave them Canada shirts and bandanas (as the next day was Canada day... and we're from Canada) and they wore them for the rest of the night.  It was super sad to say goodbye to them aswell, they have become my really good friends and I wish I could take them home with me!!

Then came the worst goodbye: Zabi.  She is the housemaid who lives with our family but she is our dada(sister).  Friday morning our family came out to say goodbye, as did our close neighbours and the neighbourhood kids.  The little kids were all yelling "GOODBYE JEMY, GOODBYE JENIFA".  Mama, Mwendy and Baba will all be in Dar with us this weekend so we didn't have to say goodbye to them... but at this time I couldn't stop the tears.  When it came time to say goodbye to Zabi I couldn't help it - the waterworks started... and then Jenn started, then Mama, and then Zabi.  She is the most wonderful, lovable, happy person in the world.

Today we had debrief with Cheryl in Dar es Salaam, tomorrow we hang out with Mama and Mwendy, and Monday I leave!!!!  Will be home Tuesday!

Missing Morogoro already,

Jamie

So little time!

Zanzibar was AMAZING.

minus the last night of being up all night sick and then travelling home on the ferry and then public bus, sick.  But other then that it was fabulous!! Full moon party, beach, parasailing, stone town, fish market... paradise!

Now back to Morogoro and time to wrap everything up!

I saw murder yesterday.
Rabbit murder that is!  We went to Kiroka with YCI Intern Larissa for a rabbit raising project.  Three local women from two villages were selected to receive three rabbits to start their own rabbit raising business - to sell the meat for profit.  Two days of training went really well - but yesterday we watched the rabbit guy show them how to kill, skin, gut, and then clean the rabbit - yummy!  Rabbits are also really easy to skin - two people grab an end of the rabbit and pull, and the skin comes right off (after you behead it of course!).

This week is our last week of real classes - next week we have a graduation party for the Chamwino and HBC computer and english classes, and then posttests and final activity reports for everything.  And A LOT of goodbyes.  I'm so NOT ready to go yet.  Two months is such a short time!  Before coming I was thinking that eight weeks is going to be so long and I'll barely make it,.,... but it's been so short and I wanna stay for another eight weeks!  (although if I did that a certain someone might kill me! haha).

We had internet cafe with our computer and english classes tonight and after we took them all out for a soda! They are definitely my favourite class! Just such good and cute kids, so ready to learn!  It's going to be really hard to leave them!  And our famjam and Frankie and Magunda and Makho, and Jamie(another YCI intern)!

But I must stop talking about leaving since it isn't happening YET, but very soon!

So tomorrow is english with HBC!  Friday we have girls club and it's going to be a big debate!  The girls formed two teams and they are going to debate about how women don't need to rely on men.  It's for sure going to be interesting!  They are an awesome bunch of girls - pretty independent and well organized.  One of them, Anna, drew all of us (Tony, Jenn, Devon, and I) pictures today to take home.  They are so good! Such a little artist.

Everywhere we go we make friends.  It is such a friendly and wonderful place! 

Football Bonanzas and Mountain Climbing

My body is so sore.

Friday we had a football and netball bonanza in Kinole.  Kinole is a rural village about an hour and a half (depending on driving conditions) into the mountains.  We got up at 6am and headed to Faraja for 7 when we were supposed to leave.... should have factored in that Tanzania time thing!  Whether we waited an hour or two, or not, we finally arrived.  The drive there was quite eventful - really bumpy and tossy and turny... we hit our heads a couple of times!  The event took place at the local school and school children and community members alike were present - I would say there was at least 1000 people there, but probably more!  Football (don't forget, football is soccer here!) is really big here and that alone drew people in. 

The day was really successful once it all got started.  We had the Amkeni Sanaa drama group there with us who provided entertainment and MC'ed for most of the day.  We had little competitions with the school kids - a couple of dance offs, a chicken catching race, and some games that were fun and educational at the same time.  They also performed a couple of skits about Malaria awareness - prevention, causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and medications, etc.  Did you know that there are completely resistant strains of malaria now?  So like HIV/AIDS, there is no cure for these particular strains right now.  Shit, right?

The main point of the bonanza was to present HIV/AIDS and Malaria facts to the football and netball teams, school children, and community members.  Although it was supposed to be mainly Malaria oriented it ended up being a lot more geared toward HIV/AIDS.  The four of us - Jenn, Tony, Dev and I - did a lot of condom demonstrations with a lot of bananas.  It was really good though because when we first asked the first football team if they have any questions (before going over any information) the first guy asked "Condoms protect against HIV but how do we use them?".  Get out the bananas! Get out the condoms!  And boy did we give out a lot of condoms.  During a demonstration Devon and I were doing together one of the girls asked about female condoms.  Female condoms aren't very popular at home and it didn't even cross my mind that they would be available here - but they are.  One of the school teachers ran to her house to get one... and they presented it to me (NOT Devon) and asked me to demonstrate how to use it.  I had never seen one of those things in my life before!  

The day went really well, it was really cool to watch the football games (no shinpads - ouchie!), but also the netball game.  Netball is played by females here.  It is a combination of European Handball and Basketball - but the nets have no backboard, just a hoop.  It was a really good game!

Although the drama club and MCs had been dancing around all day and we had been around, we weren't stepping up and dancing in front of everyone as the only "wzungos" there.  Well, boy did that change!  Toward the end they called us up to be introduced officially.  (Because the bonanza was completely off schedule there were no formal introductions done at the beginning eventhough we had been around talking to people all day). So they introduced us, etc, and then said they had a surprise for us.  Well, we all looked at each other with the "please don't make us dance" look.  BAZINGA!  Let's make all the white kids dance in front of every one!  Hahaha, it wasn't so bad - we just danced like crazy people for the hell of it.  And Magunda had my camera and so we now have a video of it - yaaaaay! 

Saturday sleep in to recover from the long day of the bonanza?  DON'T THINK SO! Up at 5:30 this morning to go into town, grab some mandaz (doughnut-y things) and chai to meet Frankie and Baisa who were taking us to the top of the Uluguru Mountains!! So in total we went up 1.6km.  That's a long way up!  And not counting the distance we walked, just the altitude.  And we did it in 4 hours - including a half hour break at Morning Side (which is about the halfway point), and numerous breaks that Tony and I took going up. 

It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.  It wasn't that it was so steep but that I couldn't breathe.  So while we were all sweating and huffing and puffing, Frankie and Baisa (both members of Amkeni Sanaa) were singing and dancing and yelling and fooling around the whole way up - jealous!  It's funny how around town they all take their time walking places, nice and pole pole (slowly), but put them on the mountain and UP THEY GO, fast fast!  Haha, it's cool - Tony and I took our time.

Some places were really really steep going up and you used to weeks to help you up, others it was more like a steady incline.  We had pure glucose powder that we ate to make sure to keep our energy up - suga suga.  And the last two hours-ish were in the jungle!  Now I really felt like "I was in Africa".  It was so cool! 

When we were at Morning Side looking down at Morogoro and the crops on the mountain side we noticed the clouds starting to roll in.  They rolled in right around us and stayed with us all the way to the top!  When we were at the top looking off the side all you saw was white.  We were above the clouds, in between the clouds, but we couldn't see down.  In a way it was a little more freaky than if you could see down because you didn't know how far the fall was at that particular spot or if there was a ledge just under it.  So unfortunately we couldn't see down from the top, but it was still amazing to just lie up there!

At the top Frankie cooked ugali and samaki (fish) and we feasted! Haha.  We listened to music, sang, there was a little bit of a dance party, and a lot of just hanging out and napping.  But it was cold up there!  All the way up is pretty cold but you didn't really notice it because of how much you're sweating - but as soon as you stop moving you feel it!

Going down is a lot faster than going up - although it hurts your legs a lot more.  By the time we got down to the bottom, the sides of my butt and my thighs were on fire.  We hit up the supermarket for some more water and ice cream (yum!!!) and took a taxi home (so lazy!, haha).   It was so much fun!! But Sunday and today my body is yelling at me.  As long as I'm moving around for a bit I get used to it, but as soon as I sit down and then try to get back up I have to give my body a second to adjust.  This means going back to rugby when I get home won't be as easy - doing a mountain minus 5 weeks of exercise....... rugby minus 8 weeks of exercise! Wooooo.

Today is going to be planning and activity reports - this weekend Zanzibar here we come!  Then only one weekend left in Morogoro!  I'll be home in three weeks!! Time is flying.

<3
J

Postponed

Hola!!

oops... wrong language.  MAMBO!

So poor Devvy got sick yesterday and we decided it was best for him to rest at home this weekend and not risk getting worse in Zanzibar.
So this weekend?  Jenn plans to do a lot of sleeping in, not really my style but I'm good to just do nothing.  Except we're going to try and go to the Masaii market on Sunday - if we can find someone to take us there.  I guess it's pretty cool, Larissa (an intern here with YCI), and Lonny (a previous volunteer) went and said it's a lot of fun.  Biggest part of their trip to the Masaii market?  You can drink cow's blood... we'll see if that happens or not!

Other than that there isn't too much going on over here.  Just working!  For the health lesson yesterday at the SSS the boys session went pretty well.  They asked a lot of questions and were really interested in puberty and safe sex.  Bonus!  The girls session didn't go as well.  First off we had a male translator, which is kind of inappropriate for a lesson on puberty for girls - but we got through that because Magunda did a really good job!  We were relying primarily on discussion of the information, and although there was some there wasn't a whole lot.  That's okay - the information was given, some really good questions were asked, and we finished a little early. Yay play time!

Today Jenn and Anthony are at the SSS for Life Skills.  Dev and Anthony are going to a drama club talent show presentation at a secondary school while Jenn and I are heading to girl's club.  The topic today for Girl's Club?  - Legal Right and Inheritance.  We are bringing in a guest speaker for these particular subjects because although we may know some of that stuff in Canada, we are certainly no experts - especially not in Tanzania.  The Girls are really excited about these topics and Jenn and I are hoping it goes really well - we'll report back!

Jenn and I had HBC English class last night.  You wouldn't think that teaching English, a language you have been speaking your whole life, would be so hard.  But starting from the basics, from stuff you just know and don't have to know, can be difficult.  This week it was Nouns and Adjectives - next week Verbs and Adverbs.  We'll work off that!  They are such good students! Taking notes and answering questions, and trying hard to speak English.  Sometimes it's difficult because we're teaching English, but we have translators translating the English to Swahili... but we're getting there and the students are really picking up on it!

That's it for now folks!

J


(ps, I have now been here for a month.  It's HALF OVER! I'll be home in a month... crazy!)

Three weeks already!

Mambo rafikis!!

So this week is already our fourth week here which means we have already been here for three weeks! It's ridiculous.  One the one hand I feel as though I have been here forever, and on the other I feel as though I just got here. 

Yesterday Jenn and I had our HBC English and Computers class.  We just worked on computers - basic formatting and typing on Microsoft Word - because we are now going three times a week! Tomorrow we'll be at the internet cafe where the kids can all be on computers themselves, and then Thursday we'll do an english lesson.  It's a little difficult teaching the computers because Jenn and I work off a laptop while the kids crowd around us and watch what we're doing - that's why Wednesdays we travel to the internet cafe.  

The kids are so cute!  For the past two weeks we have had 9 kids, yesterday we had 18!  Most of the new members to the group were at PlayDay on Saturday - so happy to have more kids!  They are all so excited to try and learn and be there with us.  They are possibly my favourite group. 

Today I'm just working on programs for the rest of the week.  Tomorrow's internet cafe lesson plan, Thursday's english for HBC and also puberty at the SSS, and Friday is girl's club.

Thursday's health plan is going to be interesting!! Devon and I work together for that class and last week we did a general puberty and female/male reproductive anatomy lesson.  The boys and girls were together for the lesson, and considering the material it went fairly well.  A couple of giggles here and there but we were giggling too!  Magunda did a good job considering the content - when he had to say vagina in Swahili the kids knew what was coming - they started to laugh and yell and egg him on to say it, and although he started to laugh a little he eventually said it... with applause and laughter from both the kids and Devon and I.

This week however we are splitting up the boys and girls to go into more detail and depth about the changes they will be facing, or are currently facing.  No prob right?  Wrong.  What about the cultural differences in dealing with menstruation, cramps, do they shave legs and armpits here?  It's cool - I've mostly got it figured out.  The only thing I'm worried about is that the girls won't ask the questions they want to ask.  Devon and I are relying on the lesson being a lot of discussion and Q&A, but having the girls with a male translator may present a shyness problem.  Hopefully not!

Other than that I'm about to grab some lunch and work on my english lesson plan!  Ouuu, we found a little place that makes fruit salad with ice cream on the top.  Mango, pineapple, banana, papaya, vanilla ice cream... heaven!! 

Also, does anyone have any ideas yet about food Jenn and I can cook for our famjam?

I'm hearing little good things about improving weather at home - yaaay!
It's HOT and gorgeous here!

lots of upendo! (love)

Jamalam! 

Happy, Tired Sunday

Yesterday was our play day!

Playday happens once at month at the Faraja Trust Fund Home Based Care Center (or HBC).  It is a day where people from all ages, little mtoto (babies) to 20 year olds, come to the HBC center to play games and sports in the morning, have lunch, and then we take the 12+ group to the Rock Garden!

It was SO MUCH FUN.  All the little kids were so cute and so happy to play play play play play!  It was a little intimidating first walking in with all of the children running around, but 5minutes in and you had no room to breathe!  Some of the kids jumped on us right away but a lot of them were really shy.  Especially if they hadn't seen many wzungos before.  It happened quite frequently that morning that the kids would come up to me, slowly, and then carefully touch my hands or my arms, then my fingers, and my face.... and my hair.  Our hair is a lot different then what they are used to and they just marvel at the difference!  And they were touching me, if felt like, to see if I felt different or if you could actually touch me, something like that.  It was cute - but as soon as they determined I wasn't much different I became another toy (hahaha)!

One group of little girls that was around me were looking through some story books and there was one of Barbie.  In it Barbie was babysitting a little African girl, but the little girls would stare at Barbie, then look at me, and go back and forth... and then. Mzungo! Wewe! (White person - you!).  Like, I'm Barbie - we have the same long straight hair and white skin.  Frankie and Devon certainly thought it was hilarious... but it was kinda cute.

After lunch - wali, marahaga, and ndizi: rice, beans, and a banana - we took the older kids to Rock Garden.  Now the Rock Garden is this stream/river that comes down off of the mountain.  It is beautiful! Actually, it feels like you're back in Canada.  It is surrounded by trees, and trickles like a stream.  So there are certain parts where there are rocks in the water and other parts where it's flat - none of it is steep, but a steady run down the side of the mountain... so we swam!  The boys hiked further down stream to go swimming while the girls got to stay further upstream - it is taboo for the genders to swim together.  It was really nice.  Jenn and I and the girls ran around in the water, going a little up and a little down, deeper and more shallow, through rapidy rocks and calm pools.  SO fun!  And as a plus there is no seaweed or zebra mussels and completely cool to walk barefeet - no one got cut or anything! Poa sana!

So we followed the older girls, carried the younger ones and just hung out.  Splashing and talking - having some girly fun!  And then we all packed up and everyone got dropped off!

Anthony, Devon, Jenn and I went to Magunda's basketball game last night after we got home from our day!  It was cool - a lot like street ball.  Then we walked home, had some delicious dindin, and watched a movie with Mama Mwendy, Prisca and Happy (our neighbours, 20 and 18), and Zabi, and gossiped while they tried to get Jenn to agree to marry Mama's brother or Prisca/Happy's uncle - good times, good times.

Today we went to the market!!  Crazy crazy busy place.  It was fun, we were in a group of 5 white girls and one local guy (HP - one of the girl's boyfriends).  We just walked around, took everything in - then went to town for a bite to eat - yuuummyy fresh mango/passion fruit juice!.  

Now home time and then the next week ahead!

The four of us are going to Zanzibar this weekend!  Google Zanzibar beaches, you'll be jealous! :)

sending lots of love home!

J