I started off my last post with a bit of good news, but unfortunately I must begin this one with some bad news. About twenty minutes after I put up my last post we headed to a roundtable discussion and final lunch before leaving Dodoma with the NY group. All the pastors of the various parishes were there to see off the visitors and to share their thoughts on the distributions at the roundtable. The pastor from Iringa Mvumi was in attendance, which was the parish I visited with the terribly sick 28-year-old man. The reverend unfortunately was the bearer of bad news, as he told us that the man had died that morning. It was in fact AIDS that killed him, and it was also this terrible disease that killed his wife two years ago. It is hard to imagine what will happen to the five children he and his wife left behind, and I can only hope that their grandfather and other family members are able to care for them. Eight percent of Tanzania’s population is infected with HIV, and many people are not even aware they have it. People either do not have access to testing services or they choose ignorance over enlightenment and forego testing altogether. Of those who are aware they are infected, however, I’m sure there are many who cannot afford the medication. Miriam told me a story soon after I arrived here which still angers me to think about. One of the Tanzanians she knows was telling her what they had been taught about AIDS in school. He explained they had been told that the disease was created in an American laboratory and was introduced to Africa in an attempt to eradicate the population. It is shocking to think people would teach children this, and I am sure that many of these now adults still consider this to be true. Miriam asked her friend whether they still believed this and only got a shrug of the shoulders as a response. It’s unbelievable!
These last few days have been blissfully boring and uneventful, as we were given a few days vacation after returning from Dar es Salaam. I was greatly looking forward to sleeping in to ungodly hours, but unfortunately this is an indulgence which has been taken from me. Three weeks straight of early mornings has ingrained a habit on me which 8am classes never could, and I find myself up everyday at 8am. The fact that I do not have solid glass windows doesn’t help matters either, and the squeals of the children at the primary school across the road eventually force me out of bed with the realization that there is no hope for more sleep. Aside from short trips to Liz’s door to borrow DVDs, I have rarely left my house – much less the compound – and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ve watched an entire season of a show called Psych, and though I’m not sure whether it would hold my attention at home, it has definitely provided me with hours of entertainment! I’ve now moved on to Christy, which brings back memories of home. My mom used to like watching this show when it made its one-season appearance on TV years ago, and I can remember watching it with her on Saturday nights. Liz and I are a bit concerned about the day we make it through our sparse DVD collections. Hopefully by that point we will have internet access, which we all know can cause hours to pass in the blink of an eye. Tomorrow we go back to work, and we have a new staff member starting work with us this week – another New Zealander! Callum and his wife Laura arrived last week, and while Laura will be teaching at the CAMS school, Callum will be working with us. They are friends of Miriam’s from home, and from our first meeting they seem like great people. It will be nice to have new company both in and out of the office.
Our trip to Morogoro and Mikumi with the New York group was successful, and I think everyone enjoyed the trip to the National Park. We arrived in Morogoro on Wednesday night and checked into our hotel, which I was pleasantly surprised to find was very nice. I had my own room with a huge bed and a TV, and the best shower I’ve had since arriving in Tanzania. I was feeling a little under the weather again after our long ride from Dodoma, so I skipped dinner and settled in hoping to find some Olympic coverage, as I have not yet had the opportunity to watch even one event. My search yielded no results on the 10 or so channels the hotel provided, so I was resigned to watching terrible South African soap operas before I collapsed in exhaustion around 8:30pm. Whatever it was that I had last week – the headaches, soreness, and fatigue – had returned, and this time it settled in to stay for about 5 days. Any movement or activity was exhausting and simply standing made my throbbing headaches even worse. I put on a tough face for the Mikumi National Park visit the next morning, however, and it was another great trip. Though we still didn’t see any lions, we did have a wonderfully close encounter with a herd of elephants, which had been somewhat scarce on my previous trip. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we returned happy and exhausted to the hotel.
The next morning we packed up and made our way to Dar es Salaam. We stopped on the way to the airport at a carvers market which had tons of stalls set up where merchants were selling fabric, wooden carvings, jewelry, and art. As soon as we got off the bus the merchants were yelling at us, urging us to come into their stalls. When we entered the shops we were quickly surrounded by people showing us all the wares they had to offer, claiming they would give us a good price. I have found there are hardly any set prices in Tanzania, and everything is based on who you are and what else you buying. Tourists are charged much higher prices for the same merchandise as locals are. (This also stands true for buying produce at the market in Dodoma, which is why I think I’ll be sending Margaret – the woman who cleans my house – to do my shopping! I’ll get back to Margaret later on…) It is understood that you never take the first price you are offered, and bargaining is a fact of life here. This has never been something I’ve been very good at, but I think I managed to do a pretty good job this time. Even when merchants claimed they were giving me the ‘local’ price and not the ‘Mzungu’ price, they were still extremely high, and I would make lower offers. If they didn’t accept, you have to show no further interest and walk away, when they will usually call you back and accept your offer. I made the mistake of showing interest in a canvas painting, though I was not interested in paying what they were offering. For the next 30 minutes or so I had men coming up to me claiming their shop had more and better paintings, and they would even go so far as to bring them to me and lay them out before me on the ground. I politely refused and continued on with the group, but these paintings kept catching my eye. I went to another stall and found one I loved, and proceeded to bargain with the artist and other men for about the next 30 minutes. He started out trying to charge me 100,000 Tsh for it, and though it was large (about 3’x2’), there was no way I was going to pay that! I used the fact that I was an artist as leverage, and told them I could go home and paint it myself for a very low price. I eventually got them down to 35,000 Tsh, which I still thought was a little high, but I was stressed and exhausted, not to mention it was time to leave. I am quite happy with my purchase – though I haven’t yet figured out how I’m going to hang it on my concrete walls – but I found the entire market experience to be highly stressful and not at all enjoyable. I prefer the method of shopping in which everything has a price tag, and this bartering business will take some getting used to!
I found the task of seeing the group off at the airport to be a bit challenging, as I knew they were going home to the U.S. and I was staying here. It’s hard to imagine being here for another 7 months and 18 days (but hey…who’s counting?!) when these past 3 weeks have seemed like forever. There is a quote I have found to be true which says something along the lines of: “The difficulty of a task gives it meaning. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing.” If leaving home and coming to Africa wasn’t going to be challenging, I don’t think I’d be here. I came looking for something new, and I’ve definitely found it. I know it will get easier as I find my niche, and I’m hoping being back in the office and learning our official jobs will help create that feeling. After saying our goodbyes and leaving the group at the airport (along with Miriam, who was headed with 2 of the women off for a vacation on the island of Zanzibar for a few days) the rest of the staff and I made our way to a Catholic and Episcopalian hostel to stay the night. I spent the rest of my birthday (I turned 22 that day) trying to sleep off the headache which now seemed like a permanent fixture in my head. Later on I was able to use the hostel’s internet (which was very fast and cheap…a rare combination) to respond to many emails I’d been waiting to get to. Calls from my grandparents and parents later on that night were a welcome end to the day, and it was so nice to hear voices from home. The next day Liz, John, Mmoti, Noel, Pastor Noah, Musa (our driver), and I made the 8-hour trip back to Dodoma. We were much more comfortable with the loss of 17 people from the bus, so we were even able to stretch out a bit, which made the trip much more bearable.
We arrived home to the wonderful smells of Margaret’s cooking, and though it was close to 5pm, she and her adopted daughter Maria were still hard at work. It is expected here that “Wzungu” hire someone to do cooking, cleaning, and laundry, and Liz and my help has come in the form of Margaret, a wonderfully kind and hardworking woman. Though we had originally decided she would come on Wednesdays for Liz and Thursdays for me, after one week she discovered she had too much other work to do. She told us she could come on Saturdays and do both of our houses at once, bringing along Maria to help with the extra work. Since the CK staff works on Saturdays this arrangement worked out fine for us, and we arrived home with her in the midst of her work. She and her daughter must have spent about 9 hours cooking, cleaning, and doing our laundry, all for a very small price. We were told she gets paid 3500 Tsh per day, which is an astonishingly small amount equaling about $3.00. She even does our shopping for us, which is a blessing. Although the market was exciting and new on our first visit, I found my second one to be slightly intimidating, and I feel very out of place there. I think Liz and I will be sending Margaret for a while at least, definitely until we know enough Swahili to communicate without help. After she leaves I find myself with a stack of clean clothes and a fridge full of food. This week she made me both cookies AND a cake, and I think she’s in on the scam to make me gain weight here! I plan to get the recipe for the cake to share, as I know my mom in particular would love it. I think I will be quite spoiled by Margaret, and it will be hard to return to home and doing these things all myself!
I’m going to try to stretch out and enjoy this final day of our vacation as much as I can, though I guess I may try to make one outing to the Internet Café to post this on my blog. I’ve received numerous emails and comments from people saying how much they are enjoying reading it, and that is wonderful to hear. It’s difficult to put what I see and experience here into words, and though I try, I know it doesn’t come close to describing what it’s truly like. I think telling the story is all I can do, and having someone there to read it makes it all worthwhile. Thank you for your continued interest in my journey, and I’ll try to keep my writings worth coming back for.
NOTE:
I thought I’d provide my contact info for Dodoma in case anyone needs it:
Cell phone: (255) 787 599 511
I’m not sure what it will cost you, but I can receive both texts and calls from the U.S.
Address: Sarah Dailey
Canon Andrea Mwaka School
P.O. Box 228
Dodoma, Tanzania
East Africa
8.27.2008
8.20.2008
It Takes a Village to Raise a Child
Written Tuesday evening August 19
I guess I should start off with some good news…..I do not have Malaria! Though I had a few days where I wasn’t quite feeling 100%, I have fully recovered now and am feeling back to normal. Whatever I had made its way through the CK office, as both Elizabeth and John (one of the Tanzanians who works with us) came down with similar symptoms only a few days after me. I think everyone is better now and thankfully no one was sick for more than a couple of days.
The group of 16 visitors from the diocese of New York has now been here for almost a week, and since their arrival our days have been filled from morning to night with scheduled events. The group is representative of five parishes from the NY diocese, all of which are linked with one or more parishes here through the Carpenters Kids program. The group is made up of 14 women and 2 men, most of whom are middle-aged. Three teenagers did accompany them, however, and there are two girls who were 17 and one who is 13. I think the group has really enjoyed their time here, though they have definitely had their share of bad luck. At least half of the group has been sick at some point from either the food or water, and everyday we were missing one or two people who were too ill to leave the hotel. Despite this and other hardships (including a car breakdown which left one group stranded for over an hour, many long and uncomfortable journeys, and a packed schedule) the group has remained in amazingly high spirits. Though I know myself and the rest of the CK staff are exhausted from all the work this week as well, it has definitely been wonderful having them here. We’ve all had a great time.
Much of our week was spent visiting the parishes around Dodoma which are sponsored by the five churches represented by the group. Each morning we would meet at the hotel and go off in groups of about 8 people to visit these various villages, and each group was made up of both NY visitors and CK staff. Just this week I have been to four villages, each of which are strikingly different and yet similar all at the same time. In each village I visited – which included the villages of Chamwino, Humekwa, Iringa Mvumi, and Mvumi Muungano – our car was met outside the village by large groups of people who were singing songs to welcome us. The group would then surround the car and lead us on our final leg of the journey to the church, which often was quite a far distance. Many times we would get out and walk with them, sharing in the celebration. Upon arrival we were taken into the pastor’s home and served chai (breakfast), which usually consisted of coffee and tea, chapatti (like a flour tortilla with more grease!), some kind of fried dough (almost like a doughnut hole), and occasionally some variety of meat as well. After finishing, we were taken on a short walk around the village and shown some of the homes of the CK children. Most of these homes are made of mud bricks and are extremely small. We went into the home of a little boy named Jackson in Iringa which consisted of two tiny rooms (about 10’x10’), the roof of which was about 5’ from the ground. All of these homes have dirt floors and no furniture apart from perhaps small wooden stools. The doors are made from twigs or pieces of scrap metal, and if there are windows they are usually very small and high off the ground. It is hard to imagine living in these tiny dark spaces, and even harder to imagine that entire families occupy them. It puts it into perspective to think that in the States a home of 2.000 square feet is thought to be quite small, and yet here there are families of four and five living in about 200 square feet. How’s that for size?!
We were also shown the water sources for the villages of Iringa and Mvumi Muungano, both of which were appalling. Iringa’s water source was basically a large hole which had been dug in the ground to collect water during the rainy season, while in Muungano the men were digging holes to find water deep enough under the ground, where it was then pulled up with buckets. Both of these sources produced extremely murky and dirty water, and yet the people use it for everything – including drinking. As I’ve mentioned before, the water here must be boiled to remove impurities before it can be consumed, and yet in the villages they often do not do this, resulting in a large number of illnesses. We take for granted being able to turn on the faucet at any moment and get clean water, but here clean water only comes in bottles, which are too expensive for them to buy.
Iringa-Mvumi was perhaps the most heart-wrenching visit I have experienced thus far. Not only did we visit the home of Jackson, who had two clubbed feet, but there were also other members of the village who elicited strong emotions as well. Out of the 50 Carpenters Kids in this parish, one child stood out blatantly from the rest. He wasn’t any shorter or smaller or skinnier than the others, but he was an albino. From the moment I saw him I could see the pain he struggles with everyday, and he seemed to shrink into himself as if it people would just look past him. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for this child to live in a place where everyone around him has dark skin, serving only to accentuate his situation. I have a cousin in the U.S. with this condition, and though I can’t speak for him, I believe that there this ailment is not given much thought. I, for one, just think of him as being a little paler than the rest of us, nothing more. It was clear there was more to it for this boy. He wore a baseball cap pulled down over his face and sunglasses to shield much of him from the sun, but painful sores were still visible on his cheeks. Whereas all the other children in the group were excited and bubbly, this one little boy sat with his head bent, constantly trying to cover his face with his hands. I don’t think I have ever wished I could speak Swahili more, because at that moment all I wanted to do was to be able to tell him how handsome I thought he was, so that maybe for a moment he might sit up a little straighter and join the fun around him. I can’t help but wonder what will happen to him as he gets older, and I hope he is able to find the self-esteem he is entitled to.
We also visited the home of another member of the village whose son had been sick for quite some time. The man asked if Rev. Ellen O’Hara, one of the priests from NY, would come in and say a prayer for him. We all filed into the small house and entered the room where his son was sleeping. The boy didn’t stir as we gathered around him and Rev. O’Hara gave her blessing, but I could tell that the form underneath the covers was extremely frail and thin. All that was visible was the top of his head and the outline of his hip and leg bones protruding though the thin blankets. When we asked the man how old his son was, I expected an age of 8 or 9 based on the size of the boy I’d seen in the bed. I wasn’t quite prepared when he replied that his son was 28 years old and was the father of 5 children. At that point it became clear that there is no getting better for this man, as no 28-year-old could look that way and survive for much longer. The children’s mother had already died, and their father is most likely soon to follow. It is children like these that the Carpenters Kids program aims to help, but it was overwhelming to be confronted with it head-on. I think this family needs many many prayers.
After being shown around the villages by the priest and members of the church, we would then gather with the Carpenters Kids and the village members for the distribution of gifts to the children. Sometimes we were outside and sometimes we were inside the church itself, and today there must have been about 700 people literally sitting on top of each other to join in the festivities. After introductions are made by the church staff and committees, the visitors are asked to introduce themselves. I finally mastered my introduction in Swahili today and was able to recite it with no help from my notes!
This is what I said:
Ninaitwa Sarah. Ninawalatea salaamu toka Kanisa la Neema katika Georgia, Marekani.
Nitafanya kazi ya Watoto wa Seremala kwa miezi nane. Nimefuraha kuwepo hapa na asenteni kutukaribisha.
Which means:
My name is Sarah. I bring you greetings from Grace Church in Georgia, America. I will be working for Carpenters Kids for eight months. I am happy to be here and I thank you for welcoming us.
I think the crowd was somewhat surprised to see a Mzungu stand up and speak in Swahili! After introductions the village presented us all with gifts. Men are given the royal treatment here, and each day the man with us was dressed up like a leader of a tribe. The women were given gifts of gourds, baskets, jewelry, peanuts, and Kangas (traditional fabric which they use as clothing). Following the presentation of our gifts, it was time for the NY visitors to distribute the gifts they brought for their Carpenters Kids and the church staff. The group I was with for much of the week gave out T-shirts, pencils, candy, and socks for the kids, while adults were given dish towels, I love NY T-shirts and hats, pens, and tote bags. Each village has a number of singing groups, and throughout each day we were constantly given performances. Many of the songs had been written especially for our visit, and each song was accompanied by dancing and drumming. Some of my favorite performances were by the Carpenters Kids, and as Miriam said, those kids have more rhythm in their pinky fingers than I do in my entire body!
After closing remarks and usually more singing and dancing, we were then served lunch. Rice, beans, some kind of stew with potatoes and meat, cabbage, and soft drinks are usually served, and there is TONS of it!! While all of the visitors prepare our plates with modest servings, the people here pile pounds of food on their plates, including the children. I am always amazed to see how much these kids can eat, and then I remember that this may be their one meal of the day. It is also likely that rice is somewhat of a treat for them, as they usually are fed Ugali, which is a traditional food here which I am told is between mashed potatoes and grits. While the Carpenters Kids have been included in the meal on our last two village visits, it has been hard to watch as the hundreds of other village children stand outside. It is clear they too are in need, though it isn’t yet possible for them to be included in the program. There are hopes to expand the program so that eventually every needy child in each parish can be included, but it will take time and money for this to become a reality.
After shaking hundreds of hands and extending our thanks for the hospitality we have been shown, the group finally loads up and hits the dusty trail back to Dodoma. Each day offers new insight into what the lives of these people must be like, and I think it has been wonderful for the NY group to see what they are supporting. The people here are so generous. They may not have much, but they give whole-heartedly what they do have. The children are remarkable as well. I have yet to see a child be reprimanded for misbehaving, and that isn’t because the parents don’t discipline them. I am amazed by how patient and well-behaved they are, and they can sit quietly for hours without complaining. I think this may have to do with the pace of life, as things run much slower here. In the U.S. everyone is in a rush to do everything and is constantly stressed out, which influences the way American children behave. Here, however, things happen as they happen, and as a result the children are willing to wait.
Tomorrow offers no break from the busy schedule, as we are off to Morogoro and to Mikumi National Park. I’ve been here only two weeks, and yet I will have already been on safari twice! Maybe we’ll get to see lions this time! After spending two nights in Morogoro we head to Dar es Salaam, where we will leave the NY group at the airport. The CK staff (we are ALL going on this little journey) will stay another night in Dar, returning to Dodoma on Saturday. The office will be closed until Thursday next week, so it will be nice to have a little time to breathe!
I have had a few questions about the food and the weather, so I will try to answer those. I think I have already explained what kind of food is served here, and most of it is pretty good. I thought I might come to Africa and starve, but I am finding this is definitely NOT the case! I feel as though we are constantly being fed, and I have probably eaten my weight in rice since I arrived. Practically everything we eat is carbs, and a lot of food is fried. I have been running more in the last week here than I did in the last month at home, which I feel is absolutely necessary to ensure I don’t come home having put on a few pounds! I am finding that the one thing I miss most from home is good salads, as they aren’t served here (not to mention you have to be careful about eating raw vegetables). I’ve tried a variety of mystery meat, and today John (TZ from our office) made me try some liver we were served at chai. Let’s just say I wasn’t a fan, and I will not be eating it again! Unlike the NY clan, though, I’ve been lucky enough not to get sick from any of the food here, and I’m crossing my fingers that it stays that way.
The weather is quite nice here at the moment, though mornings and evenings can be pretty cold. (50s) It is winter now, so I’m trying to enjoy what little relief there is from the heat before it gets really hot in a month or two. It warms up a lot during the day, but without the humidity of Georgia it is much more bearable. It is extremely dry and the rainy season doesn’t start until November, at which point I’m told everything in sight turns green. I’m looking forward to seeing that!
I have also met Bishop Mdimi Mhogolo, and from what I can tell he is a very charismatic and wonderful man. He has great ideas about plans for the diocese, and he is very informed about his people and what is happening around Dodoma. One point I feel I must make about him, however, is that he is definitely not a man of few words. I have been in his company a few times now where he has been given the opportunity to speak, and his intentionally short speeches are usually quite long. He is in fact a man of many, many, many words. And when you think he’s done, he throws in a few hundred more just for good measure! I think everyone finds it quite humorous actually, and they know that when Bp. Mdimi has the floor, you better settle in your seat. You might be there a while!
I apologize for the extreme length of this post, but I feel I had a lot to write about. I’ve been hoarding all these thoughts that I intended to write out, so hopefully I got them all! I’ve just hit the two week mark of being in Dodoma as of today, but in terms of what I’ve experienced it feels like a lifetime. It will be interesting to see how time changes as I grow more accustomed to being here. I think it will get easier when I feel like I am no longer a visitor, though how long that will take I’m not sure. Only time will tell, and I guess I’ll have to wait and find out.
I guess I should start off with some good news…..I do not have Malaria! Though I had a few days where I wasn’t quite feeling 100%, I have fully recovered now and am feeling back to normal. Whatever I had made its way through the CK office, as both Elizabeth and John (one of the Tanzanians who works with us) came down with similar symptoms only a few days after me. I think everyone is better now and thankfully no one was sick for more than a couple of days.
The group of 16 visitors from the diocese of New York has now been here for almost a week, and since their arrival our days have been filled from morning to night with scheduled events. The group is representative of five parishes from the NY diocese, all of which are linked with one or more parishes here through the Carpenters Kids program. The group is made up of 14 women and 2 men, most of whom are middle-aged. Three teenagers did accompany them, however, and there are two girls who were 17 and one who is 13. I think the group has really enjoyed their time here, though they have definitely had their share of bad luck. At least half of the group has been sick at some point from either the food or water, and everyday we were missing one or two people who were too ill to leave the hotel. Despite this and other hardships (including a car breakdown which left one group stranded for over an hour, many long and uncomfortable journeys, and a packed schedule) the group has remained in amazingly high spirits. Though I know myself and the rest of the CK staff are exhausted from all the work this week as well, it has definitely been wonderful having them here. We’ve all had a great time.
Much of our week was spent visiting the parishes around Dodoma which are sponsored by the five churches represented by the group. Each morning we would meet at the hotel and go off in groups of about 8 people to visit these various villages, and each group was made up of both NY visitors and CK staff. Just this week I have been to four villages, each of which are strikingly different and yet similar all at the same time. In each village I visited – which included the villages of Chamwino, Humekwa, Iringa Mvumi, and Mvumi Muungano – our car was met outside the village by large groups of people who were singing songs to welcome us. The group would then surround the car and lead us on our final leg of the journey to the church, which often was quite a far distance. Many times we would get out and walk with them, sharing in the celebration. Upon arrival we were taken into the pastor’s home and served chai (breakfast), which usually consisted of coffee and tea, chapatti (like a flour tortilla with more grease!), some kind of fried dough (almost like a doughnut hole), and occasionally some variety of meat as well. After finishing, we were taken on a short walk around the village and shown some of the homes of the CK children. Most of these homes are made of mud bricks and are extremely small. We went into the home of a little boy named Jackson in Iringa which consisted of two tiny rooms (about 10’x10’), the roof of which was about 5’ from the ground. All of these homes have dirt floors and no furniture apart from perhaps small wooden stools. The doors are made from twigs or pieces of scrap metal, and if there are windows they are usually very small and high off the ground. It is hard to imagine living in these tiny dark spaces, and even harder to imagine that entire families occupy them. It puts it into perspective to think that in the States a home of 2.000 square feet is thought to be quite small, and yet here there are families of four and five living in about 200 square feet. How’s that for size?!
We were also shown the water sources for the villages of Iringa and Mvumi Muungano, both of which were appalling. Iringa’s water source was basically a large hole which had been dug in the ground to collect water during the rainy season, while in Muungano the men were digging holes to find water deep enough under the ground, where it was then pulled up with buckets. Both of these sources produced extremely murky and dirty water, and yet the people use it for everything – including drinking. As I’ve mentioned before, the water here must be boiled to remove impurities before it can be consumed, and yet in the villages they often do not do this, resulting in a large number of illnesses. We take for granted being able to turn on the faucet at any moment and get clean water, but here clean water only comes in bottles, which are too expensive for them to buy.
Iringa-Mvumi was perhaps the most heart-wrenching visit I have experienced thus far. Not only did we visit the home of Jackson, who had two clubbed feet, but there were also other members of the village who elicited strong emotions as well. Out of the 50 Carpenters Kids in this parish, one child stood out blatantly from the rest. He wasn’t any shorter or smaller or skinnier than the others, but he was an albino. From the moment I saw him I could see the pain he struggles with everyday, and he seemed to shrink into himself as if it people would just look past him. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for this child to live in a place where everyone around him has dark skin, serving only to accentuate his situation. I have a cousin in the U.S. with this condition, and though I can’t speak for him, I believe that there this ailment is not given much thought. I, for one, just think of him as being a little paler than the rest of us, nothing more. It was clear there was more to it for this boy. He wore a baseball cap pulled down over his face and sunglasses to shield much of him from the sun, but painful sores were still visible on his cheeks. Whereas all the other children in the group were excited and bubbly, this one little boy sat with his head bent, constantly trying to cover his face with his hands. I don’t think I have ever wished I could speak Swahili more, because at that moment all I wanted to do was to be able to tell him how handsome I thought he was, so that maybe for a moment he might sit up a little straighter and join the fun around him. I can’t help but wonder what will happen to him as he gets older, and I hope he is able to find the self-esteem he is entitled to.
We also visited the home of another member of the village whose son had been sick for quite some time. The man asked if Rev. Ellen O’Hara, one of the priests from NY, would come in and say a prayer for him. We all filed into the small house and entered the room where his son was sleeping. The boy didn’t stir as we gathered around him and Rev. O’Hara gave her blessing, but I could tell that the form underneath the covers was extremely frail and thin. All that was visible was the top of his head and the outline of his hip and leg bones protruding though the thin blankets. When we asked the man how old his son was, I expected an age of 8 or 9 based on the size of the boy I’d seen in the bed. I wasn’t quite prepared when he replied that his son was 28 years old and was the father of 5 children. At that point it became clear that there is no getting better for this man, as no 28-year-old could look that way and survive for much longer. The children’s mother had already died, and their father is most likely soon to follow. It is children like these that the Carpenters Kids program aims to help, but it was overwhelming to be confronted with it head-on. I think this family needs many many prayers.
After being shown around the villages by the priest and members of the church, we would then gather with the Carpenters Kids and the village members for the distribution of gifts to the children. Sometimes we were outside and sometimes we were inside the church itself, and today there must have been about 700 people literally sitting on top of each other to join in the festivities. After introductions are made by the church staff and committees, the visitors are asked to introduce themselves. I finally mastered my introduction in Swahili today and was able to recite it with no help from my notes!
This is what I said:
Ninaitwa Sarah. Ninawalatea salaamu toka Kanisa la Neema katika Georgia, Marekani.
Nitafanya kazi ya Watoto wa Seremala kwa miezi nane. Nimefuraha kuwepo hapa na asenteni kutukaribisha.
Which means:
My name is Sarah. I bring you greetings from Grace Church in Georgia, America. I will be working for Carpenters Kids for eight months. I am happy to be here and I thank you for welcoming us.
I think the crowd was somewhat surprised to see a Mzungu stand up and speak in Swahili! After introductions the village presented us all with gifts. Men are given the royal treatment here, and each day the man with us was dressed up like a leader of a tribe. The women were given gifts of gourds, baskets, jewelry, peanuts, and Kangas (traditional fabric which they use as clothing). Following the presentation of our gifts, it was time for the NY visitors to distribute the gifts they brought for their Carpenters Kids and the church staff. The group I was with for much of the week gave out T-shirts, pencils, candy, and socks for the kids, while adults were given dish towels, I love NY T-shirts and hats, pens, and tote bags. Each village has a number of singing groups, and throughout each day we were constantly given performances. Many of the songs had been written especially for our visit, and each song was accompanied by dancing and drumming. Some of my favorite performances were by the Carpenters Kids, and as Miriam said, those kids have more rhythm in their pinky fingers than I do in my entire body!
After closing remarks and usually more singing and dancing, we were then served lunch. Rice, beans, some kind of stew with potatoes and meat, cabbage, and soft drinks are usually served, and there is TONS of it!! While all of the visitors prepare our plates with modest servings, the people here pile pounds of food on their plates, including the children. I am always amazed to see how much these kids can eat, and then I remember that this may be their one meal of the day. It is also likely that rice is somewhat of a treat for them, as they usually are fed Ugali, which is a traditional food here which I am told is between mashed potatoes and grits. While the Carpenters Kids have been included in the meal on our last two village visits, it has been hard to watch as the hundreds of other village children stand outside. It is clear they too are in need, though it isn’t yet possible for them to be included in the program. There are hopes to expand the program so that eventually every needy child in each parish can be included, but it will take time and money for this to become a reality.
After shaking hundreds of hands and extending our thanks for the hospitality we have been shown, the group finally loads up and hits the dusty trail back to Dodoma. Each day offers new insight into what the lives of these people must be like, and I think it has been wonderful for the NY group to see what they are supporting. The people here are so generous. They may not have much, but they give whole-heartedly what they do have. The children are remarkable as well. I have yet to see a child be reprimanded for misbehaving, and that isn’t because the parents don’t discipline them. I am amazed by how patient and well-behaved they are, and they can sit quietly for hours without complaining. I think this may have to do with the pace of life, as things run much slower here. In the U.S. everyone is in a rush to do everything and is constantly stressed out, which influences the way American children behave. Here, however, things happen as they happen, and as a result the children are willing to wait.
Tomorrow offers no break from the busy schedule, as we are off to Morogoro and to Mikumi National Park. I’ve been here only two weeks, and yet I will have already been on safari twice! Maybe we’ll get to see lions this time! After spending two nights in Morogoro we head to Dar es Salaam, where we will leave the NY group at the airport. The CK staff (we are ALL going on this little journey) will stay another night in Dar, returning to Dodoma on Saturday. The office will be closed until Thursday next week, so it will be nice to have a little time to breathe!
I have had a few questions about the food and the weather, so I will try to answer those. I think I have already explained what kind of food is served here, and most of it is pretty good. I thought I might come to Africa and starve, but I am finding this is definitely NOT the case! I feel as though we are constantly being fed, and I have probably eaten my weight in rice since I arrived. Practically everything we eat is carbs, and a lot of food is fried. I have been running more in the last week here than I did in the last month at home, which I feel is absolutely necessary to ensure I don’t come home having put on a few pounds! I am finding that the one thing I miss most from home is good salads, as they aren’t served here (not to mention you have to be careful about eating raw vegetables). I’ve tried a variety of mystery meat, and today John (TZ from our office) made me try some liver we were served at chai. Let’s just say I wasn’t a fan, and I will not be eating it again! Unlike the NY clan, though, I’ve been lucky enough not to get sick from any of the food here, and I’m crossing my fingers that it stays that way.
The weather is quite nice here at the moment, though mornings and evenings can be pretty cold. (50s) It is winter now, so I’m trying to enjoy what little relief there is from the heat before it gets really hot in a month or two. It warms up a lot during the day, but without the humidity of Georgia it is much more bearable. It is extremely dry and the rainy season doesn’t start until November, at which point I’m told everything in sight turns green. I’m looking forward to seeing that!
I have also met Bishop Mdimi Mhogolo, and from what I can tell he is a very charismatic and wonderful man. He has great ideas about plans for the diocese, and he is very informed about his people and what is happening around Dodoma. One point I feel I must make about him, however, is that he is definitely not a man of few words. I have been in his company a few times now where he has been given the opportunity to speak, and his intentionally short speeches are usually quite long. He is in fact a man of many, many, many words. And when you think he’s done, he throws in a few hundred more just for good measure! I think everyone finds it quite humorous actually, and they know that when Bp. Mdimi has the floor, you better settle in your seat. You might be there a while!
I apologize for the extreme length of this post, but I feel I had a lot to write about. I’ve been hoarding all these thoughts that I intended to write out, so hopefully I got them all! I’ve just hit the two week mark of being in Dodoma as of today, but in terms of what I’ve experienced it feels like a lifetime. It will be interesting to see how time changes as I grow more accustomed to being here. I think it will get easier when I feel like I am no longer a visitor, though how long that will take I’m not sure. Only time will tell, and I guess I’ll have to wait and find out.
8.12.2008
Hustle & Bustle
Written Monday evening, August 11
It has been a busy week here in Dodoma, and it’s hard to believe I only arrived one week ago today. It seems as though it has been several weeks at the very least, perhaps because we have packed so much into every day.
We had our first day at the office last Thursday, and Miriam had us doing things to prepare for the New York pilgrimage group that will be arriving on Wednesday. On Thursday afternoon Andrew, a missionary from the UK, took us to a Nane Nane festival, which literally translates to Eight Eight, a holiday celebrating agriculture and farming. There were booths set up to promote different agricultural programs and crops, stands selling crafts and jewelry, and a section of animals taken from the national parks. It was interesting to take part in this event, especially as “Wzungu”, or white people. We often get called this walking down the street, and walking to town recently Liz and I heard the comment from a child who couldn’t have been more than a year and a half old! I guess they teach them young!
On Friday morning at 4am we boarded a bus with about sixteen other missionaries and made the four hour journey to Mikumi National Park for a day-long safari. Although our guide told us that the dry conditions and the time of day were not ideal for seeing animals we still saw many, and all we missed were the lions and tigers. I’ve never seen animals so close and in their natural habitat, and the trip provided ample opportunity to use my new camera! After leaving the park we traveled a short distance to Morogoro where we had dinner and stayed at the Lutheran Junior Seminary (private high school) and Language School. Morogoro is in the mountains and experiences a much more frequent rainy season than Dodoma. As a result the town looked completely different from what we were accustomed to, as everything was lush and green opposed to the dry dusty conditions in Dodoma. The next morning we went to another Nane Nane festival before heading back to Dodoma.
Sunday morning we went to our first service at the Cathedral which was in English and much more contemporary than I’m used to. Apparently the Kswahili service, which is at 7am on Sundays, is much more traditional, and I think we usually will attend this service. The Cathedral is quite pretty, although it looks more like a mosque than a Christian cathedral. After church we headed out on our first Carpenters Kids distribution in Mwitikira. The CK staff loaded up two Land Rovers with all the supplies we had to give to the children and made the hour and a half long trip on an unpaved and very bumpy road. I have a feeling we will be doing lots and lots of traveling during my time here!
I guess I should give a brief background of the Carpenters Kids program…..
The program was started as a partnership between the Episcopal Diocese of New York and the Diocese of Central Tanganyika. The program links a parish in the U.S. with a parish here, and AIDS orphans and underprivileged children from these parishes are selected to be “Carpenters Kids”. These children are given school supplies, a school uniform, and breakfast every morning. When a parish is selected they are asked to identify about 75 of the most vulnerable children in their parish, after which a screening committee travels to the parish to conduct interviews with the children and their guardians. The list is then reduced to about 50 children, though this may vary depending on how many children the U.S. parish chooses to support. After the children are chosen they are measured for uniforms and shoes, and these are then made back in Dodoma. Every Saturday the CK staff goes on distributions to these parishes, on which day all the uniforms and supplies are given out. Currently there are about 4,300 Carpenters Kids from about 73 parishes in the diocese, supported by various churches in New York, a few in Virginia, one in Australia, and by a group of college friends from Colorado. The Atlanta diocese also gives some support, though they are not directly linked with a parish here. It costs $50 to support one child for one year, and $2500/year seems like such a small price to pay to enable these 50 or so children to go to school.
When we arrived in the village, which has no running water or electricity, I was amazed to see the large crowd of people which awaited us. We piled out of the cars and went into a small house where Suzanne, a missionary from the church linked with this parish, had been living for the past 6 weeks. She had been teaching at the school there, and it was amazing to hear how touched she had been by the generosity of the people of Mwitikira. She arrived planning to sleep on an air mattress during her stay, but was surprised upon her arrival to find a nice bed in her room. It was not until her final week that she realized the bed must have been placed there for her use, and in fact it belonged to the priest of the church and his wife. They had given up their own bed in order to make her more comfortable, which truly shows the compassion and generosity of these people.
We were served a meal of rice, chicken, and beans before we went outside to begin the distribution. This was the second trip to the village for CK, as last year 50 children were given uniforms. This year, however, an astonishing 136 new children had been selected to be added to the program. So, in addition to giving the 50 ‘veterans’ their second uniforms, we were also able to give all these new children their uniforms, school supplies, mosquito nets, and mattresses. There must have been several hundred people gathered under the shade of the trees, both Carpenters Kids and people from the village who had come to watch. The church choir was singing and dancing, and Liz, Miriam, and I went and joined them. This was one of the most unique experiences I have had thus far. Even though I couldn’t understand what they were singing, they made every effort to include us in their celebration. Finally it was time for the distribution to begin, and each one of the CK staff was asked to introduce themselves. Miriam and Noel (one of the wonderful Tanzanians who works in the office) had written out a brief introduction in Kswahili for Liz and I, and though I made an attempt, I am uncertain whether they were able to understand a word I said!
Each child was called up by name with their guardians to receive their supplies, and then they went and changed into their new uniforms. It was amazing to see the crowd of children slowly transform from a group of children in dingy and tattered clothes to a group in their bright new uniforms, and you could see on their faces how happy they were. Several of their guardians and parents came up to the staff and shook and kissed our hands to extend their thanks, and it was touching to see the effects of this wonderful program. I feel honored to be working for an organization which does so much for people who have so little, and I am grateful for the parishes in the U.S. who have chosen to support it. I only wish they could all visit these villages, as I have now done, to see what a difference their donations are making. I am glad the group from New York will be able to experience this feeling next week, and we will be going on several more distributions during their visit here.
I think the continuous excitement and activity of this past week is getting to me, and I awoke this morning not feeling quite 100%. My stuffy sinuses, achy body, and headache made for a long day, and Liz and I joked that perhaps I have contracted Malaria. Even though the symptoms are similar, I think this was a slight overreaction, and I hope to be back to normal tomorrow! I hope also to be able to post pictures soon, but I have yet to have access to a fast enough internet connection in order to do so. Thanks so much for all your thoughts and well wishes. Your encouragement is greatly appreciated. Until next time, Tutaonana! (Goodbye!)
It has been a busy week here in Dodoma, and it’s hard to believe I only arrived one week ago today. It seems as though it has been several weeks at the very least, perhaps because we have packed so much into every day.
We had our first day at the office last Thursday, and Miriam had us doing things to prepare for the New York pilgrimage group that will be arriving on Wednesday. On Thursday afternoon Andrew, a missionary from the UK, took us to a Nane Nane festival, which literally translates to Eight Eight, a holiday celebrating agriculture and farming. There were booths set up to promote different agricultural programs and crops, stands selling crafts and jewelry, and a section of animals taken from the national parks. It was interesting to take part in this event, especially as “Wzungu”, or white people. We often get called this walking down the street, and walking to town recently Liz and I heard the comment from a child who couldn’t have been more than a year and a half old! I guess they teach them young!
On Friday morning at 4am we boarded a bus with about sixteen other missionaries and made the four hour journey to Mikumi National Park for a day-long safari. Although our guide told us that the dry conditions and the time of day were not ideal for seeing animals we still saw many, and all we missed were the lions and tigers. I’ve never seen animals so close and in their natural habitat, and the trip provided ample opportunity to use my new camera! After leaving the park we traveled a short distance to Morogoro where we had dinner and stayed at the Lutheran Junior Seminary (private high school) and Language School. Morogoro is in the mountains and experiences a much more frequent rainy season than Dodoma. As a result the town looked completely different from what we were accustomed to, as everything was lush and green opposed to the dry dusty conditions in Dodoma. The next morning we went to another Nane Nane festival before heading back to Dodoma.
Sunday morning we went to our first service at the Cathedral which was in English and much more contemporary than I’m used to. Apparently the Kswahili service, which is at 7am on Sundays, is much more traditional, and I think we usually will attend this service. The Cathedral is quite pretty, although it looks more like a mosque than a Christian cathedral. After church we headed out on our first Carpenters Kids distribution in Mwitikira. The CK staff loaded up two Land Rovers with all the supplies we had to give to the children and made the hour and a half long trip on an unpaved and very bumpy road. I have a feeling we will be doing lots and lots of traveling during my time here!
I guess I should give a brief background of the Carpenters Kids program…..
The program was started as a partnership between the Episcopal Diocese of New York and the Diocese of Central Tanganyika. The program links a parish in the U.S. with a parish here, and AIDS orphans and underprivileged children from these parishes are selected to be “Carpenters Kids”. These children are given school supplies, a school uniform, and breakfast every morning. When a parish is selected they are asked to identify about 75 of the most vulnerable children in their parish, after which a screening committee travels to the parish to conduct interviews with the children and their guardians. The list is then reduced to about 50 children, though this may vary depending on how many children the U.S. parish chooses to support. After the children are chosen they are measured for uniforms and shoes, and these are then made back in Dodoma. Every Saturday the CK staff goes on distributions to these parishes, on which day all the uniforms and supplies are given out. Currently there are about 4,300 Carpenters Kids from about 73 parishes in the diocese, supported by various churches in New York, a few in Virginia, one in Australia, and by a group of college friends from Colorado. The Atlanta diocese also gives some support, though they are not directly linked with a parish here. It costs $50 to support one child for one year, and $2500/year seems like such a small price to pay to enable these 50 or so children to go to school.
When we arrived in the village, which has no running water or electricity, I was amazed to see the large crowd of people which awaited us. We piled out of the cars and went into a small house where Suzanne, a missionary from the church linked with this parish, had been living for the past 6 weeks. She had been teaching at the school there, and it was amazing to hear how touched she had been by the generosity of the people of Mwitikira. She arrived planning to sleep on an air mattress during her stay, but was surprised upon her arrival to find a nice bed in her room. It was not until her final week that she realized the bed must have been placed there for her use, and in fact it belonged to the priest of the church and his wife. They had given up their own bed in order to make her more comfortable, which truly shows the compassion and generosity of these people.
We were served a meal of rice, chicken, and beans before we went outside to begin the distribution. This was the second trip to the village for CK, as last year 50 children were given uniforms. This year, however, an astonishing 136 new children had been selected to be added to the program. So, in addition to giving the 50 ‘veterans’ their second uniforms, we were also able to give all these new children their uniforms, school supplies, mosquito nets, and mattresses. There must have been several hundred people gathered under the shade of the trees, both Carpenters Kids and people from the village who had come to watch. The church choir was singing and dancing, and Liz, Miriam, and I went and joined them. This was one of the most unique experiences I have had thus far. Even though I couldn’t understand what they were singing, they made every effort to include us in their celebration. Finally it was time for the distribution to begin, and each one of the CK staff was asked to introduce themselves. Miriam and Noel (one of the wonderful Tanzanians who works in the office) had written out a brief introduction in Kswahili for Liz and I, and though I made an attempt, I am uncertain whether they were able to understand a word I said!
Each child was called up by name with their guardians to receive their supplies, and then they went and changed into their new uniforms. It was amazing to see the crowd of children slowly transform from a group of children in dingy and tattered clothes to a group in their bright new uniforms, and you could see on their faces how happy they were. Several of their guardians and parents came up to the staff and shook and kissed our hands to extend their thanks, and it was touching to see the effects of this wonderful program. I feel honored to be working for an organization which does so much for people who have so little, and I am grateful for the parishes in the U.S. who have chosen to support it. I only wish they could all visit these villages, as I have now done, to see what a difference their donations are making. I am glad the group from New York will be able to experience this feeling next week, and we will be going on several more distributions during their visit here.
I think the continuous excitement and activity of this past week is getting to me, and I awoke this morning not feeling quite 100%. My stuffy sinuses, achy body, and headache made for a long day, and Liz and I joked that perhaps I have contracted Malaria. Even though the symptoms are similar, I think this was a slight overreaction, and I hope to be back to normal tomorrow! I hope also to be able to post pictures soon, but I have yet to have access to a fast enough internet connection in order to do so. Thanks so much for all your thoughts and well wishes. Your encouragement is greatly appreciated. Until next time, Tutaonana! (Goodbye!)
8.07.2008
I Made It!
After many long months of anticipation I have finally arrived in the place that is to be my home for the next 8 ½ months: Dodoma, Tanzania. I’ve barely been here over 24 hours but already I have found this place, along with the journey I took to get here, to be quite an adventure, and I know there are only many more to come.
I left Atlanta at 4:40pm on Sunday August 3rd and embarked on the first leg of what would become quite a long trip. I settled into my seat and prepared for the 8 hour flight I had ahead of me, and having just made my final goodbyes, found myself in a somewhat of a depressed mood, enhanced by my feelings of anxiety for what lay ahead. It wasn’t long, however, before I met Adam, who was seated across the aisle from me. Ironically, he was also headed on a mission trip, and we began talking about our trips and what both of us would be doing. Aside from helping to ease the boredom from the long flight, Adam also helped remind me of what a great experience I was about to embark on, which greatly improved my mood and renewed my excitement about arriving in Tanzania. After all, I was headed to Africa, how could I be upset about that? After a short layover in Amsterdam I boarded my next plane, which with a stop in Kilimanjaro was about a 10 ½ hour trip to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. I arrived in the airport, waited to be approved for a Visa, gathered my bags, and walked outside to find Magi. Magi is an appointed missionary for the Episcopal Church from Griffin, Georgia, who also works in Dodoma. She had been my primary contact for organizing my trip for the past few months, and it was such a relief to see her waiting for me. We then got in a taxi and Frank, our driver, took us to a hotel not far from the airport.
I awoke excited about my first day in Tanzania and I immediately went out to explore. I was pleasantly surprised to find I was directly on the coastline of the Indian Ocean, and although I was in one of the larger cities in Tanzania, the hotel’s location made it feel somewhat secluded. After exploring the grounds I was sitting on the small porch outside my room when I saw a small animal run by, which I quickly realized was a REAL, LIVE MONKEY! I immediately grabbed my camera and followed it to where it had retreated into the trees, and there it was joined by 4 or 5 others. I hadn’t expected to see any exotic animals, except on safari, and for anyone who knows my childhood obsession for monkeys, this pretty much made my first day in Africa….and it was only 10am!
After Magi returned from picking up Elizabeth, another volunteer from the U.S. whom I will be working with, we caught a bus and began our 7 hour ride to Dodoma. This was by far the most exhausting part of the trip. The bus was similar to a run-down Greyhound bus in the States, though very cramped and without the comforts of a bathroom or AC. I was gratefully given a seat in the first row, which allowed me the benefits of leg room, a great view, and an open window. My neighbor, Naftal John Mallel, attempted to teach me a little Swahili on the way, and as a result of his quizzing I had picked up a few things by the end of the journey. The bus ride afforded me the opportunity to see what life is like for people here. All along the way there were people selling produce and other wares outside their mud brick houses which lined the desolate road, and at any point where the bus slightly slowed they were running up to try and sell whatever they could through the windows. We stopped for one 10 minute break the entire journey, so by the time we reached Dodoma we were extremely relieved to be there! We were greeted at the station by Miriam, a missionary from New Zealand. She told us the unfortunate news that she had locked the keys in the car of the Land Rover, and after calling a few people for another car, we finally arrived at what is now our new home.
Elizabeth and I both live in a compound of apartments which belong to the Canon Andrea Mawaka International School. I have a small unit which is made up of a kitchen, living area, bathroom, and bedroom, complete with furnishings. I was relieved to know I will not have to live without hot water here, the only difference being I have to flip a switch on the wall in order to turn on the heater, which takes somewhere around 30 minutes to heat. A few new changes, however, include the necessary evils of boiling and then filtering all my water, and also sleeping under a mosquito net. I am also being allowed to live here rent-free, and Carpenters Kids – the program I will be working for – is generously covering this expense for me. Miriam and Magi also live in units which are part of the school, though they are a compound about 2 blocks away.
Today was quite packed and exciting, as we spent our day traveling around town to get all the necessary things we would need. Miriam and a friend picked us up and first took us to get Tanzanian currency, which is the Tshilling (100,000 = about $100.00). We then visited the Carpenters Kids office where we will be working, bought cell phones, and bought groceries. We took our first visit to the market, which was an incredibly unique experience. It is an open-air market where vendors sell fruit, vegetables, rice, beans, and spices. We bought woven baskets to carry all our purchases, and wound our way through the stalls to collect various things. I don’t know what we would have done without Miriam and Jo there to help us, and it is obvious that though many people do speak English here, speaking Swahili is a necessary skill. After the market we went to a few Western-style grocery stores for additional items such as dish soap, milk, and sugar. Cereal does exist here, which I was worried I would miss, though it comes at a high price. A small box of Special K cost me the equivalent of about $6. Prices for things are quite different here, as everything fresh from the market was very inexpensive, which would be the more expensive items in the US, whereas everything which we had to buy at the Western grocery stores was more expensive, the cereal for example. Gas prices are perhaps the most shocking, however, and while Georgians are complaining about $3.98/gallon, just know it could be much, much worse. Gas here is the equivalent of about $8.00/gallon!
Tomorrow begins our first day of work at the Carpenters Kids office, which I will explain more about later. I am so happy and excited to be here, and so far I have met some wonderful people and had some wonderful experiences. Although I know my life here will be quite different from what I’m used to, I’m going to try and make the most of it, and I know I won’t have any regrets.
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