Tues May 31 (again!)

Had to post this picture because I love it :)

Mon May 30 and Tues, May 31, 2011

Mon May 30 and Tues, May 31, 2011

Mon: Today we went to Boona Baana again and it was a good day. We helped the kids finish all their homework and then read a few books and went outside to play a game of soccer…boys against girls!! Then we talked with the owner and he was really encouraging and excited about our ideas for helping the kids with their funding for school, so we are all really happy! He thought that doing a calendar of the kids and their stories is a great fundraising idea and we are also going to work on updating their volunteer pamphlet and their website! 

Tues:  http://www.meso-tz.org/

The Multi-Environmental Society is a non-profit NGO dedicated to eco-tourism in Tanzania. Their aim is to improve the environment while also improving individual and community life as well. Responsible tourism is important for conserving natural and cultural resources in areas that your travel. Awareness is often the first step towards conservation efforts. Also by using eco-tourism groups, it creates an opportunity for money to go back into the community and support local individuals. My goal while in Tanzania is to be a responsible tourist because I want to give something back instead of just take an experience with me. If every tourist gave something back when they travelled to countries like Africa or every organization gave something back, I believe we could all make a difference, no matter how small or large, giving back can create change! Whether going on safari, a tour in Stonetown, or even just visiting a village, you can make it benefit the community in a positive way by booking with an organization that supports the local community or environment. By doing a bit of research it is easy to find organizations that donate a bit of the money they charge to go towards a good cause, such as building a school, preserving forests, helping animals, supporting hospitals or clinics, or caring for young children.

http://www.theeuropean-magazine.com/215-davis-wade/214-environment-and-exploration

I am now going to quickly talk about the above article by Wade Davis because he has some great insight into cross-cultural exchange. His view on globalization and how that has changed cross-cultural relations is based on his explorations of remote areas of the world. By becoming more of a modern world, are we killing old traditional cultures and ways of life? Does modernity mean we can’t have traditional, or is there a way to have both? Its difficult to maintain culture with a global economy because commodity goods such as cell phones, television and the like get pushed onto cultures and these new ways of life often replace traditional ways of life. Davis believes travel is often negative because of the high costs of fuel and energy it takes for people to constantly be moving from place to place and this movement only continues to increase. He doesn’t believe all travel is bad, he also states it has many positive effects too when people use responsible tourism.

Considering Davis’s interpretation and those of many eco-tourism websites, I believe that Davis is correct that travel and movement has more negative consequences on the environment, but I also know that travel is not going to decrease and therefore by promoting and using responsible eco-tourism will allow for communities to benefit while people travel.

Saturday May 28 and Sunday May 29, 2011

Sat: Today we went to a play that HOPAC did. HOPAC is a school in Dar es Salaam that some of the interns are volunteering at. The kids did the Sound of Music and it was really good. Maria, the woman that cleans and cooks at the Guest House came with us and she really enjoyed it. On our way home we stopped for gas and we all got free shirts that say “I Love Jesus”, it was random they were at the gas station, but all the employees were wearing them so we asked if we could have one and they were actually excited to give them to us! So now I have a clean shirt to wear to bed, haha!

Sun: As soon as I got to Dar es Salaam I noticed the abundance of garbage that was always on the ground, but over the weeks I’ve also noticed the casual nature that people here litter. I’ve always been one to be bugged by witnessing others litter in Canada and probably because it’s been engrained in my thinking that littering is bad and wrong because it is against the law and condoned. But here, everyone litters and there’s no sanitation system in place to clean it up so it generally just accumulates in the street. Since there’s no law against littering and no one actively works at cleaning it up, I believe it’s just an accepted thing to do. I’m not stating that they like the waste, I believe they would really appreciate an organization that had productive waste management and made a difference by cleaning up the streets, I’m just saying that it’s a cycle of the lack of government initiative, lack of a difference that one individual could make by picking up their garbage, and an increasing norm to litter and/or just ignore the large amounts of garbage accumulating on the streets.

http://www.dispatchesinternational.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59:a-long-way-to-a-clean-dar-es-salaam&catid=45:tanzania&Itemid=57

This short article gives an insider’s perspective of the extent of garbage in Dar es Salaam and some of the main reasons for why it is there and why it’s not getting any better. The companies organizing waste removal are ineffective and the workers they employ are burdened with irregular and unreliable work. Workers are paid less than $2 a day to pick up garbage and they aren’t provided the protective tools they need to keep safe and clean. “Each municipality within the city produces between 530 and 2,000 tonnes of waste each day, but less than half is picked up and delivered to an official disposal site. This means that over the course of any given year, the communities of Dar es Salaam are choked by more than 323,000 tonnes of uncollected trash”. This quote from the above article puts the extent of this problem into perspective and it’s no wonder Dar es Salaam is one of Forbes filthiest cities. Something needs to be done on the large/governmental scale to combat this garbage epidemic.

Tonight a couple of us made some cookies! Its nice to know we can cook now and the Father brought us a bunch of bowls and more cooking utensils! We made oatmeal and fresh coconut cookies, they ended up being so good. It was really funny opening the coconuts though because we weren’t sure how we were going to and then Jen ended up throwing one on the floor and it cracked open but we weren’t expecting it too and coconut juice sprayed everywhere and we all screamed like we were getting murdered, haha, it was pretty hilarious…but also unsettling that our Masai didn’t even come to check on us to see what had happened J

Thurs May 26 – Boona Baana kids come for dinner

Asante sana squashed banana don’t forget to say hapana!

http://www.boonabaana.org/ check out this website and see the kids/home where I’ve been volunteering!

Went to slipway this morning, a little tourist destination with shops and restaurants. We went to the market and I bought a necklace made from coconuts, then we had lunch! We went over to the green door home and helped the kids finish any homework they had from the day since they were all coming over to our place for dinner and a movie. We had macaroni and cheese (classic Canadian meal) and fruit salad! After dinner the kids joined in on our after dinner tradition of a little game called peaches and pits. We do this every evening. We go around and each person says the best thing of their day (the peach) and the worst thing of their day (the pit). Every single kid, as well as the mamma Beatrice, said their peach was coming over to our place for dinner! I never thought about it before but it’s actually very rare for them to all sit down at a table and have a dinner together, so I’m glad we did this. Afterwards we watched the lion king on our projector and then we showed them our house and they loved our rooftop. We played some games on the roof (a Swahili version of London Bridge is falling down and ring around the rosey). I think they all had an amazing time!

Boona Baana is a home dedicated to children’s rights. That means that children deserve rights when it comes to decisions about their city and government. On Friday May 27, we watched Cherie give a presentation on the research she did for her PhD in reference to the planning and development of children’s rights. Her website: http://www.childfriendlycities.ca/. This website looks at the child’s perspective on what they believe is a liveable city and what needs to be done to make it child friendly. This initiative is important because it gives children a voice in a world where they are usually put on the backburner when it comes to decision making and importance of opinion. Children all over the world have different needs and by addressing the child it allows one to figure out just what those needs are. Some of the basic needs of many children around the world are access to education, clean water and sanitation. Thus, the needs of children vary depending on whether they are in an industrialized part of the world or not. With sustainability as a goal, communities are more likely to be liveable and effective over the long term. By asking children their hopes and dreams, a lot of them involve wanting the basics related to health care, shelter, education, and sanitation. Cherie also worked on a project in Kenya dedicated to providing funding to the grandparents of children so that they would have the support they needed in order to look after their grandchildren instead of sending them to orphanages. This is what the grandparents hoped for, but most of them did not have the support needed to continue looking after their grandchildren in the event of the death of the child’s parents. By supporting these grandparents, it was found to be more efficient and cost effective than sending children to orphanages, as well as better for the children.

Hakuna Matata!              

Wed May 25 – KidzCare

http://kidzcaretz.org/

Please check out their website and send to anyone you know that would like to help these amazing kids! They are truly resilient and in only spending two days with them have changed me in ways I can’t explain. They can also dance and sing better than anyone I have ever met J

We left bright and early for KidzCare again today! I was excited to see their smiling faces and to know that no matter what I would have a great day. Normally the older kids are at school in the morning when we arrive so we go to the primary school and help teach the younger kids English, but to our surprise all the kids were home from school today! There are two sets of twins who live here, one set are two boys and the other are a boy and a girl. (I don’t include names for privacy reasons, not sure if this is protocol but just in case I thought it would be best just to leave all names out). The boy and girl were born with club feet and are currently in the middle of getting them corrected, so they both have a cast on one of their legs. We managed to find a felt pen and the four of us who went today each drew a picture on their casts. After each one of us drew, they both would laugh and they were smiling the whole time, nothing seems to get them down. Unfortunately, the boy’s foot was bleeding under his cast because his wound had opened so Mary, the owner of KidzCare took him to the hospital to get it checked out.

It rained on and off today so when we could we were outside. Mary said it hasn’t rained here during the rainy season for two years, so she is thankful there has been so much rain this time. The kids taught us a dance today and it was really fun, even though they are 100X better at dancing than we were! In the middle of the day all the kids got really tired, as well as two of the interns (haha) and they all fell asleep, except for me, another intern, and a few of the kids. One little girl who was six years old was awake with me and we were laughing and taking pictures of the two interns sleeping on the couch and then she went and got some books and we sat on the couch for over an hour straight and I taught her some English. I was so impressed with her determination and dedication to learn English words, she was trying so hard and doing really well! These kids are very smart and they have this desire to learn, it made my day because it wasn’t me trying to push it on her to read, but her who initiated the whole thing. I don’t know but I think it meant a lot to her to have some one on one time with me and for me to just focus on her for an hour or so. There are usually always so many other kids around so it’s hard to get one on one time, therefore I’m glad we got to and hopefully will get chances to do the same with some of the other kids when I go back.

Tues May 24

“The hand that receives is always below the hand that gives”

This quote can be understood in reference to an analogy in Pete Ondeng’s book “Africa’s Moment” (2003), when it compares how when a child or young animal is dependent on its mother, it can’t fully develop and become mature. Dependence and exploitation is a cycle that’s hard to get out of and if Africa can’t get out of it, it will continue to be below the hand that it’s dependent on for aid. Continuing to receive aid allows for exploitation because the giving hand often disrespects the receiving hand since it is in power to give or withhold as they please. This inequality is desired by the Western world (the givers) because they use it for power and resources that directly benefit them, while not worrying about the future of Africa (the receivers). The receivers continue to be exploited and the givers acquire more and more power, causing the cycle to become even harder to get out of. As aid is given to Africa, a lot of it is taken by the government and not used in places it should be, therefore contributing to the increase in poverty of the country. “The child was diseased at birth, stricken with a hereditary ill that only the most vital of men are able to shake off. I mean poverty, the most deadly and prevalent of all diseases” (Eugene O’Neill). I like this quote because it looks at poverty like a disease and I believe that it relates to the first quote since poverty is something that has to be present in order for prosperity to also be present.

Mon May 23, 2011

Today on our morning jog it was very evident the lack of importance drivers give pedestrians. They don't stop nor care if your in their way and they don't stop for you. It's weird because in Canada people always stop for pedestrians. The law is corrupt here aswell. A group of us got pulled over in a taxi one day for no reason and the police man was threatening the taxi driver and was going to fine him but didn't end up, while at the same time every second vehicle is carrying too many passengers and passengers in their back cab and they don't get pulled over. The 16 hour power outages started today so we went to Oyster Bay to use their internet, but the internet wasn't working their either. We went out for lunch at a place called Sweet Easy and it was really good. Went to the green door home and the kids are really starting to like us and this one little girl especially likes me and kept coming over today, taking my arms and wrapping them around her, it was really cute! For some reason the boys have it in their heads that I'm good at math, haha, so everytime someone has a math question on their homework they all call my name to get me to come help them! We decided to invite the kids over for dinner and a movie at our house on Thursday, so they are all really excited!

May 21, 2011 - Kara's Birthday, Zanzibar Spice Tour, and Prison Island!

Today was Kara's birthday and has been an amazing day, hands down. We had a great breakfast on our rooftop then headed out for our tour. We took a dhow boat over to Prison Island and then we got to see and feed giant tortoises! Some of them were so huge and over 100 years old. We walked through the original prison they built (and the reason for the name of the island), but they actually ended up keeping slaves there. Then we went snorkeling in the Indian Ocean and I saw lots of tropical fish, blue star fish, and a school of squid! After snorkeling we headed back to Zanzibar for lunch at a locals home. We took an Eco Tour with the NGO, Eco and Culture Tours, and they try to support locals as much as possible, so a local woman made us a delicious Tanzanian lunch that consisted of rice pilau, baked bananas in sauce, curried potatoes, fried fish, and a green. One of the woman's daughters had a birthday today as well, so we sang happy birthday to her and Kara. We then headed out for the spice tour which took up the rest of the afternoon. It was neat to see where all the common spices we use in cooking everyday come from and look like before they are ground down. We saw cardamon, ginger, cinnamon, lemongrass, iodine (for cuts), turmeric, cocoa, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla and lots more! Near the end of the tour there was this man named Butterfly (I think I mentioned him in my blog from yesterday) and he was so cool, he actually climbed a palm tree while singing and swinging his legs off it every once and awhile. He climbs it to the top to get coconuts and then after he slices open coconuts for us and we drank the juice and then he chopped up the coconut too and it was delicious. The tour guides also made us watches, frog necklaces, hats, and baskets out of banana leaves! At the end we had the option to buy soaps, perfumes, and spices all from the plants and trees we had just visited! I bought some for souvenirs and all the money goes to the local farmers. We ended the night by going to Freddy Mercury's for dinner! It was a good day! On Sunday before we left we did a bit of shopping and walking around in Stonetown and some people went to the beach.

May 20, 2011 Off to Zanzibar!

Today we left for Zanzibar and it was only a 10-15 minute flight from Dar es Salaam! We went out for an early lunch at a restaurant called Livingstone that was right on the beach, it was really nice. Then we went to the beach to swim and tan. There were so many people on the beach coming up to us trying to sell things. At 4:30pm we went on a tour of Stonetown and I love it, it was so fun! The buildings are so old and still in use, its really neat. We saw where they used to keep all the slaves at the former slave market. The layout of stonetown consists of many houses/buildings with narrow little alley ways everywhere. Back in the day there wasn't any drainage system in place so our tour guide said the street would fill up with water and you'd have to walk through shin high water if you wanted to get anywhere. We also went into the oldest hotel in Stonetown called Emerson Spice and it was so nice because it's been updated. It's only $100 a night to stay there which isn't too bad considering how cool it is! We stayed at a hostel called the Princess Salme Inn for only $25 a night and it was not too bad and had a nice rooftop patio where they served breakfast and had free internet. They tried giving us different rooms from what we originally booked on line and it took awhile to get it all sorted out, but eventually it worked out. At first glance, Zanzibar is a paradise holiday that attracts many tourists throughout the year, but if you look deeper you realize that the paradise is deceiving. Tourism has some positive effects on Zanzibar and its people, but it also has many negative effects. For example, people have pre-concieved notions about you because you are white. They assume you will just give them money or have a lot of money to spend. On more than one occassion we had young children coming up to us and just saying "give me money" or "give me money for school". Adults do the same and you get the feeling that anything someone does for you or even just being nice is with the hopes they will receive a tip. We did give many tips to locals that took us on tours or for example, this one local man (stage name Butterfly!) climbed a palm tree for us while singing and swinging from it all the way to the top and then cut us up coconuts to drink the juice and then eat. But, tourism mostly benefits large investors rather than the locals. Foreigners come to Zanzibar to buy hotels and large businesses because many of local people can't afford to do so and it is these foreigners that keep getting richer and take away business from the locals. The average wage in Zanzibar is less than $1 a day for locals, indicating the problem of tourism benefitting non-locals. Therefore, if you are going to be a tourist in Zanzibar its good to be aware of this and try to some how benefit the locals.

Thursday May 19, 2011 - Dinner with L

Went to the green door home (Boona Baana) again today and helped on of the kids with his math homework. He had so much homework to do and needed a lot of help, I tried my best but my math skills are not the greatest. I helped him until we had to leave and then asked one of the older kids to keep helping him so he would get it done, but the following day I found out he didn't get his homework done so it made me kinda sad because he is really struggling. That night we invited the oldest kid (I'll call him L for short) over for dinner at our house and I think he really enjoyed himself. We also watched a couple short videos about aid coming to Africa with two different speakers with different perspectives on the issue. One of the speakers was against aid and thought that it does more harm than good because the government is so corropt that the money doesn't go where it is meant to go and the other speaker was for aid stating that without aid Africa wouldn't be where it is now. I agree a bit with both perspectives because I know that the government is definitely corrupt but also that some aid is beneficial. L is a brilliant kid and has very good insight into many issues regarding Africa and aid from Western countries. He was leaning more towards the speaker who disagreed with aid and believed it was more harmful than good. All the kids at the green door home inspire me and we are getting to know them more and more as time goes on. L for example has had a very hard life and by just meeting him you'd never know it because he is so cheerful, well mannered, intelligent, and kind. He became an orphan when his parents and little sister all died of AIDS. He has goals and a direction for his future and does really well in school. He wants to go to college and hopefully become a director. Him and one other boy from the green door home have reliable sponsors who pay for their schooling, which is very exciting. On the other hand, the rest of the kids don't and the other girls and I that are volunteering there want so badly to help them with their schooling costs as we believe that this is the best way to help in a big way in a short amount of time. Were determined to find enough financial help to get them all sponsored, so we are going to create a book that has each child's personal information in it as well as their career goals and insirations. With this we are going to try and spread the word about them and how amazing they are, as well as do some fundraising by making a calendar, etc. L said that this is a good way to help and probably their number one need. In addition to school funding, they also need money for their rent and supplies, but we are going to first focus on the schooling. L also mentioned counselling would help a lot, if not all of them which interested me because that is the direction I am heading and would love to work with kids like those at the green door home because they are so inspirational.

Wednesday May 18 KidzCare

Today we went to KidzCare orphanage, which is situated just outside of Dar es Salaam at Kerege Farms. Mary, the lady that owns the orphanage is very inspiring and makes me want to do the same some day. She wants to keep the number of kids under twenty so it remains a home and lets the kids stay until they are ready to leave, even it isn’t until they are 25 years old. There’s a main house where they live and then there is also a small primary school just a minute away. For the morning we worked with the primary classes, there were two of them and then in the afternoon when the older kids got home from school we played with them. The primary school was interesting because the teachers didn’t have much of a lesson plan, they were teaching the kids the English alphabet and numbers. There was a sheet in the classroom with the alphabet on it and pictures of things that start with the letter of each letter in the alphabet, for example A is for apple. We asked the teacher if the kids knew the words that go with each letter and she responded ‘no’, so we tried to teach the kids what each word was, but it was very hard for them to grasp. I was surprised that they had not learned these words yet considering there was only that and one other learning sheet in the classroom. The room was bare except for a chalk board and one desk up front that the teacher uses. All the kids just sat on the floor. We also taught them a few songs in English and then both classrooms went outside to play. It is sad to read in a newspaper that many of the children in schools in Tanzania have only one meal a day and the kids are often going home to teach their parents what they have learned, including how to speak English and how to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS. According to the Tanzania education network, the enrolment rate for primary aged children is around 77% with only 20% completing their primary education (stat is from 2009, so it may be higher now?). This may be due to many factors, but a likely reason for lack of completion is the need to help their parents pay rent and food costs, therefore they must drop out of school to get jobs. Although many public schools no longer require tuition, parents are expected to pay for additional costs such as uniforms, guards, Aids foundations, and other costs. Some families are just not able to afford to send their children to school. Many of the children that do go to school must walk many miles, sometimes 10 miles, just to get to school. This was evident when we had to wait about an hour for the kids from KidzCare to get home from school as well as finding a primary school student on the road on our way to Kerege Farms in the morning, whom we picked up and dropped off at her school. She was only six years old and was walking in the opposite direction because she got lost and was all alone. It is especially difficult for girls to get and remain in quality education because they must walk to school and are prone to rapists. This is apparently very common in Tanzania and the law here is that if a girl becomes pregnant, she is kicked out of school and cannot return later. I was also shocked to notice that the bathrooms at the primary school were outside without any doors, they faced the main play/learning area and were for both boys and girls. It’s a good thing I didn’t have to use the washroom while I was there! Another common reason for low school completion rates is that many children from the Masai tribe, especially girls, are forbidden to go to school by their fathers. The Masai tribe is very patriarchal and therefore the father has all the power in deciding what his family is and isn’t allowed to do. Only recently have some Masai’s started to let their children to go primary school. There are a lot of Masai’s in Tanzania, including two that sit outside our house at night with sticks as guards. I will take a picture of them one of these days to show!

After working with the primary school kids went went over to hang out with the older kids. We had a lot of fun playing hopscotch, soccer, basketball, drawing and singing. We all fell in love with the kids and want to go back as soon as possible. After we left my heart broke because we found out that of the fifteen kids at the orphanage, six of them are HIV+ and this really put things into perspective for me and really was aware just how big of a problem it is here. I know that I definitely want to research and help kids/adults in Africa with HIV/AIDS because it is such a huge problem.

May 16, 2011 & May 17

Jambo!

Today at the Boona Baana home we read books to the kids and helped them with their reading and then the kids taught us how to dance and after that we played some soccer (or football as they call it). I found out today that Beatrice, the home’s Mamma has only been with the Boona Baana kids for five years and that was a long time for a Mamma to stay, which makes me realize that the kids don’t have a whole lot of stability when it comes to parental figures. The kids are on their own for a lot of the time and take care of themselves for the most part. This was evident when a little neighbourhood girl was at the home for our book club one day and stubbed her toe and two seconds later one of the older girls, who is 13, from the home was comforting and rocking her as she cried. She already takes on a mothering role for the younger children. Although the situation in an orphanage creates more of an opportunity for this type of role formation, the family roles in Africa are different from those in Western countries. Children have a lot more responsibility in Africa including taking care of younger children and helping their parents with the maintenance of the house and income. It is very common to see children in their early teens or even younger, carrying babies and toddlers on their backs down the street. Generally, children in Canada and the United States have far less responsibility and are encouraged to remain dependent children for longer periods of time. I believe that responsibility at a younger age is ideal for living in a country such as Africa because there are a lot more daily tasks and obstacles to take into consideration in a day than there is in Western cultures. For example, water needs to be collected each day to do laundry, dishes, and to drink. Food needs to be gathered or bought frequently due to limited refrigeration and the infrequency of affordable and available childcare creates the need to depend on your own children to look after the younger ones. The down side is that the increased responsibility cuts into the amount of time kids have to just be kids, but these are some of the many factors that contribute to family roles in Africa and why children take on more responsibility at a young age than children in Western cultures.

Tues May 17, 2011 (Day 17)

Habari za asubuhi? Nsuri sana!

Today was the last day of Swahili lessons which is sad because they were fun, but I believe that I now have the foundation I need to be able to communicate better with locals and to be able to increase my vocabulary on my own and through conversations with others. Today we had planned to go to the KidzCare Orphanage and spend the night, but now we have to just go tomorrow for the day because there was no evacuation plan in place for the night time with a driver on site in case of emergencies. Instead I spent a lot of the day reading Pete Ondeng’s book “Africa Matters” and getting my blog set up. We also went into town today and on the way back we asked our cab driver, Iddy, if we could stop at his house to buy some rice from his wife. Iddy invited us in to see his house and it was really interesting and neat to see the inside of his house because it was basically just a plot of land with small concrete rooms situated randomly with an outside kitchen area in the middle. The doors to the rooms were curtains, the floors were dirt, and the walls of the rooms were fairly bare except for a picture of the president of Tanzania and a calendar (Iddy's into politics). I got another glimpse of family structure when Iddy explained that all the people in his home lived there permanently. Iddy lived with his wife, son, stepmother, nephew, sisters in law, and brothers (and possibly more). The size of the families in Africa are larger than in Canada and they all take care of each other by splitting the cost of rent, food, and other expenses. We talked with him a bit about the differences of family structure between Africa and Canada and explained that we have small families that live together and he just responded by saying “Well, it’s Africa!” which I thought summed it up pretty good! The rice we bought from his wife was only 5,000 shillings for about 3-4kg.

Investours - May 14, 2011

Today we went to Investours in Mwenge. Investours is a non-profit organization that provides poor entrepreneurs with 100% interest free loans. Our group met with two different microentrepreneurs and got to sit down and ask them questions about their business and why they think they should receive an interest free loan. The cost of the tour gets pooled together to create a $200 loan for the microentrepreneur our group chooses should receive it. Once the microentrepreneurs pay off their loan, investours reinvests the money to other members of the community and then to cover administrative and operational costs. I really enjoyed Investours because I believe in what they are doing. They create change and help for those who need it most and although $200 may not seem like a lot, for the entrepreneurs that are receiving it, it could determine their livelihood. The poor and very poor lack access to traditional formal financial institutions therefore they are unable to receive the help they need, so Investours is one way to help. Investours is not only in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania but also in Peurto Vallarta, Mexico. Since the 1980’s Investours has continued to grow and expand indicating its success with helping those in poverty, creating relationships with their clients, and ensuring loans are paid off. The first microentrepreneur our group visited was a charcoal business run by three women and although it was evident they needed the money they didn’t have a clear direction or future set out for their business. The year before they had taken out a loan to sell food on the street and our group was unsure if the loan would be useful in sustaining the business. In addition, even though charcoal is a main source of fuel for cooking in Tanzania, with 85-90 percent of the total urban population of Tanzania using charcoal as their major source of domestic energy. Gas is a luxury for the well off and electric use is rare. Charcoal use has a devastating effect in developing countries due to the deforestation it creates. Although entrepreneurs of charcoal businesses are only trying to make a living selling a product that is widely used and needed in the country, it has negative effects for the environment. The initial output of money needed to invest in a gas burning stove is quite large which is a major setback and reason for why charcoal is so prominent, but if more people were able to afford the first major cost in purchasing a gas stove they would save money in the long run. With that being said, charcoal use will continue to be high in Tanzania unless there is some funding available for those to make an initial investment to buy gas burning stoves. These facts affected, but didn’t weigh heavily on our decision to choose the woodcarving business over the charcoal business. Our decision was based more on our beliefs of each entrepreneurs use of the loan money and the business plan they had in place, as well as their future plans. Tony from the woodcarver business seemed more likely to be able to pay off the loan in the future as well as a passion to work hard and keep his business standing. Also, Investours provides the business who didn’t get the loan with a workshop on how to improve their business and we felt that the women with the charcoal business could benefit from this more than Tony would. I would recommend Investours to anyone because it provides the opportunity to see first-hand the struggles that poor entrepreneurs face on a daily basis and generally it all comes down to money. After the tour we went shopping at some of the businesses that we visited and then went to the grocery store. The differences between the grocery stores here and at home were very evident today. Most of the fruits and vegetables weren’t fresh and there were a lot of canned and processed foods for purchase with limited healthy choices, such as whole wheat products. They also have security guards situated at the entrance and exit who stamp your receipt when you leave. After dinner we watched a short video about volunteering that was really interesting because it talked about how volunteering for a short period of time doesn’t really feel like you’re making a difference but its more for personal growth and gain, which a lot of us were feeling was the case. It’s hard and unrealistic to assume you will make a huge difference in such a short amount of time, but I believe we will all make little changes which will create opportunities for more change in the future. I know I will leave here with a relationship with Africa I never had before and a new desire to help the country and its people.

www.investours.org

May 13, 2011

Today I woke up early and went for a run on the beach with Cherie and Moriah. We have to walk down the street before we get to the beach and we have to walk single file because the traffic is so bad. We ran along the shoreline and the beauty of the ocean and the sunset was so beautiful. I absolutely love it! There were quite a few people on the beach working out, doing kickboxing, running and fishing. Its so hot here that two minutes after showering you start to sweat again. We had another Swahili lesson and then went to White Sands Resort, which is only 5,000 shillings for the day to use their beach, pool and facilities (that's only about $4-5). The beauty of the beach was indescribable the pictures don't do it justice! It's crazy that there's so much beauty in Africa yet at the same time so much poverty. You can be staring at the gorgeous ocean scenery and then turn around to impoverished houses with kids running bare foot and chicken running freely. The houses and people that we consider to be in poverty don't even compare to what it's like here. Someone who may be considered poor in Canada may have a house that someone here would die for. I'm starting to become more adjusted to my arrival and excited to get started on some projects for the boona baana kids. I think I'm gonna research some ideas around HIV/AIDS prevention programs, which will be really interesting, so I'm excited.

Two new firsts

Today was my first Swahili lesson with one of teachers, Deo. He taught me so much today and I absolutely love the language and want to learn as much as I can. The words sound the same as they are spelt, which makes it a bit easier to learn. Some of the main sayings that are important to know that we learned are "How are you" which is "Hujambo" then you reply "Sijambo". To say "Whats the news of the morning?" you would say "Habari za asubuhi?" and "thank you very much" is "Asante sana". Later in the day Jodi, Kara, and I went to the boona baana home which will be our placement for the rest of the time here. We will be volunteering there on Sundays, Mondays, and Thursdays. The kids are amazing there, they have one main adult figure which they call their Mama, but they are basically on there own for most of the day when they are not at school. There are seven kids who live at the home permanently, but today we have a community book club at the home so there were around 30 kids altogether of all ages. Being here will help me with my Swahili for sure and I think us being there will help them with their English. Before I got here, Kara and Jodi and some other interns helped the kids paint their door green. I can't wait to go back there and get to know the kids better! Kwaheri (goodbye) for now!

Arrival

I arrived in Dar es Salaam on Wed May 11, 2011 and it was a long flight! My luggage got lost but I was glad to have finally arrived. As soon as I arrived I had to go to meet the rest of the interns at a CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) meeting at the Embassy where we learned all about what CIDA does and the influence they have over the funding of different NGO's and Canada's role in helping Tanzania. It seems like we could be doing a lot more to help. After the meeting we went for lunch that overlooked a cute playground. Then we went to where I'll be staying for the next two months, Passionist Fathers House in Michocheni B. Later that night I went back to the airport to get my luggage and had spent over 4 hours in traffic total for the day driving to and from the airport. There is only one main road from the airport and traffic is so bad! The people here create their own lanes of traffic on the sides of the road because if they didn't they would never get anywhere. It's so different from home, there are street vendors walking in and out of traffic trying to sell you stuff all the time. Although parts of the road is paved, other parts are not and the infrastructure is not where it needs to be. So I've finally arrived and I'm excited for what's to come!