Week 10 - The 3 R’s – Reunion, Religion & Rats

April 20 – April 29

Friday – April 20: Another small world story. For those of you from Marysville you will love this one!!
I had received an email from a friend about a young man, Andrew Zacharias, who is from Marysville and living in Tanzania.  We met Friday for lunch. Amanda came along and we ate at Uhuru Park which is a very nice park with gardens and many small Kiosks with lots of variety of foods to choose. This might be Tanzania’s version of fast food – but a whole lot better not only in taste but quality!

It was so strange talking about Marysville and, of course, it turns out we knew some mutual people. He is related to Kim Zacharias form the Sheriff’s Dept and was high school friends with Tanner Chapman. His mom, Kim, and I are close friends and worked together at Big Brothers Big Sisters.  Andrew has lived here since 2008 starting out with the Peace Corps and then getting hired by his organization, Trees for the Future. http://www.plant-trees.org/ He actually lives about 3 miles from where I live. He was off to another part of Tanzania for work and then heading back to Marysville in May for a few weeks. I asked Andrew what was the most difficult part of living here and he said knowing that no matter how immersed he is in the culture he will always be a foreigner.

After lunch he was meeting some Peace Corps friends and invited us along. We tried our 3^rd Tanzanian beer, Tusker. (Serengeti is still my favorite.) It was a very nice afternoon and great talking with other volunteers. Andrew will be in touch when he returns at the end of May and I look forward to having a “hometown connection”.

Saturday afternoon I went to Mgembe’s outdoor basketball game. Both teams were tough competitors and very good players. After the game, the losing team has to buy pop for the winning team and then they all sit in a circle to discuss any fouls or unsportsmanlike conduct. If a player has done anything negative, the others will call him out on it and there is a punishment. Some players had to do pushups. Apparently last week a guy almost got in a fight and so he had to mow the grass around the basketball court. From what I could observe it was a pretty clean game. What a great concept!

Sunday we took Deborah to KCMC Hospital. She has had a nasty ear infection and cannot hear out of one ear. She has already been to 2 clinics. Unfortunately, there was no doctor available and now has an appointment on Tuesday. While there, Amanda and I were outside playing with Rahim. Two Tanzanian gentlemen asked if Rahim was my son. I said, “No” and they asked if he was a throwaway child. I told them he was loved very much by his parents; that I was living with them; and they were inside waiting on a doctor. I am not sure how prevalent it is but unwanted babies are sometimes left at hospitals and on doorsteps of orphanages. So sad to think about the number of unwanted children around the world, the US included.

That afternoon Amanda and I went to Moshi for some Zanzibar Pizza. It more resembles a calzone than pizza and is one of my favorite foods (plus it cost under $2.00). We stopped at the ATM and the bank ate my credit card. That was kind of nerve-wracking. I was told by the guard to come back on Monday to retrieve it. All banks/ATM’s have armed guards. I remember my first time here, seeing the armed guards and feeling a bit disturbed. It has now become the norm and I feel very safe. As mzungu we are warned of robberies and pickpockets, and what precautions to take. I do not carry a purse and usually pin a small pouch for money inside my skirt.  I have been fortunate but have heard stories. A friend of mine once had someone approach her with a machete, slice her purse and run off with it. She was not hurt. (Machetes are commonly used in the fields so it is not uncommon that someone would have one.)

Monday I went to town and got my debit card back. It was quite an easy process. I just showed them my passport and signed a ledger. I made sure they did not write the card number and was on my way!

3 week old baby Rose

Victoria & Mom

Today was our monthly trip to Boma to take Victoria for her shot. She only got one shot this time so it was nowhere near as traumatizing as the last time. I could not believe the improvement in this child. She is almost walking perfectly and was much more verbal than last time. Her mother just had her 6^th child, Rose, 3 weeks ago so we took her a blanket. I discovered that Rose’s bladder is well-developed. While holding her she peed and it went thru my skirt and soaked both front and back. I was wishing I had brought diapers instead of a blanket.  We all had a good laugh and as they say often, “Oh well, This is Africa”.

Victoria’s family (mom and 6 kids) live in one room of a rental building. I would guess the room to be no more than 14x14 ft.  It was dimly lit with only one small window for light. There was a double bunk bed that had been purchased by a volunteer last year. There were a few plastic chairs and a number of buckets taking up the rest of the space. There is no electricity or water and they share a communal outhouse. The steps leading up to building were blocks and stones piled on one another.

Nie discussed family planning with mom and she is in agreement to go to the clinic for birth control. There is a cost and she has no funds so Nie will get the funds to her. Get this… Tanzania has this program where you can register your phone so you can send money to people. You go to an agent give them the money; and they program it into your phone. You then send a text to the person and they go to an agent, show them the amount and receive the funds. How amazing is that!!!!!

Receiving Micro-Loan

Tuesday we made home visits in Pasua. Amanda accompanied us. This was a productive and satisfying day because we gave out 2 micro-loans, paid school fees and got to see Veronica! As a point of reference, TAFCOM gave out 20 micro-loans in 2010. Each loan was in the amount of 100,000TSh (about $70) Only 2 women did not repay in full due to family emergencies. However, they had repaid 60 & 70% respectively. The repayment plan for micro-loans will now include a small amount of interest to be set aside for emergency assistance if needed.  

Juma 

We stopped to see how Juma is doing with her charcoal/firewood business. Her smile in the picture speaks volumes! We told her we would also pay her daughter’s school fees. Juma showed us her report card and it was all B’s!! Considering her history which includes her father and brother’s deaths, losing their home and her mother’s depression’ I would think she is doing quite well. Although the curriculum is not the quality of the US, Juma’s daughter enjoys school and works hard.

Last but never least we visited Veronica. She was feeling much better and I was able to start her life history.  I gave her copies of the pictures we took of her and she was ecstatic. Veronica said I was the #1 volunteer and invited me to move to Tanzania and stay with her. She warms my heart with her upbeat and loving nature.

Eating the African Way - With My Hands

Amanda and I stayed in town and went to lunch at the Chagga Grill. It was recommended as one of the better restaurants for authentic African food. I ordered Ugali, greens and cabbage salad. What we discovered was that it was no better than what we get at home!! Who needs restaurants when Deborah’s cooking is so outstanding?

Amanda with Tingatinga painting

We then ventured over to an Artist Cooperative. Hard to describe but it is numerous open hut type buildings where artists both create and sell their goods. The setting is gorgeous with lush greenery. Bartering is the norm and Amanda bought a Tinga Tinga painting. This genre of art is named after its founder, Tanzanian painter Edward Tingatinga and is quite unique.

Wednesday Nie, Mary and I visited the local Red Cross. My first job after college was with the Columbus Red Cross so I was very interested in learning about their programs. They are involved in First Aid, Family Planning, and a refugee camp in northern Tanzania. Our area of interest was their home-based care for those with chronic illnesses. The program sounded very much like what TAFCOM is doing but on a larger scale. We were told that Red Cross’ funding for Home-Based care ends in 2014 and the program will then be run by the government. Evidently the government determined that AIDS was classified as a “disaster” in 2002 and made funding available. The funding will end because the government no longer considers AIDS in “disaster” status. WHAT!!!!!! According to the World Health Organization, over 6.5 % of Tanzanians age 15-49 are living with HIV. Tanzania has a population of 45 million. There are over 1 million orphans (children 0-17) as a result of parents dying from AIDS.

On my way home I stopped at Abbas bakery and bought a chocolate muffin for Boniface, my Personal Trainer. He definitely enjoyed it and I explained a Muffin Top (love handles). He got a big kick out of this and proceeded to pinch one of the girls in the waist and say, “Muffin Top”.  She laughed and I told him that very few, if any, women in the US would have responded so kindly!!!”

Thursday Amanda and I returned to the Upendo Orphanage. All the kids were in one room singing and there was no one to explain what was going on. The staff and children then proceeded outside and we were invited to join them. Someone was videotaping while they sang. Afterwards, I asked one of the men what was going on and learned they were taping a Gospel music video. Stay tuned… I may have just had my 15 minutes of fame!!

We had about an hour play time with the girls. Mostly they climbed all over us and bounced on our laps. Amanda and I talked about life at an orphanage on our way home, mostly wondering; Do you miss something if you never had it?   I was thinking about Rahim who screams when he wants his mom and no one else will do. These kids will never know that special mother/child bond; will never know their siblings; will never have a parent tuck them in at night; will never have a parent who will sleep with them during a storm; will never hear their cheers above the crowd at a sporting event; will never walk down the aisle with their father.

Friday was spent at the Children’s Center planning for crochet and English lessons for the girls at the Tailoring Center.

WARNING – The following may be too disgusting for some of you. Proceed at your own Risk!!!

Sunday I was at Mussa’s store sitting on a chair in front of one of the shelving units. Mussa was on a bench getting some items from the top shelf above my head. I felt something lightly hit my head and when it hit the floor and scurried off I realized it was a rat!!! I was quite proud of how I handled myself – no screaming. I calmly asked Mussa if it really was a rat that just fell off my head and he confirmed that it was. I said ok I am going home now!!

Three’s the charm!! My first encounter with a rat was when I was walking with Rahim and saw one dead in the road. Then during a home visit I heard a squeaking sound and asked Mary if there was a chicken in the house. She told me it was not a chicken but a rat. Fortunately I did not see it.

Another disgusting tale (no pun intended) from this week occurred Thursday morning while working at home. After breakfast I had taken a muffin back to my room for a snack before working out. I was working on the computer, not paying much attention as I took a bite. I then noticed there were small ants crawling all over my muffin. I jumped up and spit my bite into the toilet. (These ants are a major problem here and they were on our honey jar the same morning. We often see them crawling on the table at mealtime.) I couldn’t even count how many I killed. Trust me they will never be on the endangered list. I can think of so many better ways to get protein but am sure this was not the first time I have eaten them.

My son was most comforting by reassuring me that people all over the world eat ants. He also offered an interesting fact on why I should not be overly concerned about killing them: There are more ants on Earth than humans and that’s a comparison by WEIGHT. That’s right. If you put all the humans on one side of a scale and all the ants on the other side, the ants would weigh more.

And so with these fond memories I bid you Nzuri Hamu (Good Appetite)!!!!