The last couple days

The African Baobab tree!

"Butter"

Kara and I pretending to be Masai's, lol!

Monday June 20, 2011 – Only 20 days left L

Today I went to Shoppers to get groceries to make dinner for tonight. At boona baana I helped E with her homework and then we did some colouring together. B's baby was there today so I got to play with him a bit. The kids are so good with babies, A is a natural when it comes to nurturing and being motherly to them and Am had her baby sister over the other day and is so responsible and grown up for her age when it comes to looking after her. Am is probably about 7 or 8 (Chai's age) but has the responsibility of looking after her 6 month old baby sister. The mom was at her home and Am was at boona baana with her sister and no adult supervision. This is a normal custom in Africa, but in Canada we are so concerned when younger children even hold babies, we have to be right by their side and are paranoid they will drop them or something. Here, young children are given the huge responsibility of completely taking care of the younger siblings. She was great with her so clearly children are more responsible with some things than we give them credit for, just different situations and cultures create certain maturities. Made appy’s for dinner tonight, bruschetta, seven layer dip, veggies and dip, egg rolls, crackers and cheese, and mini sandwiches….it was really good, then we all watched tangled and ate cinnamon buns that jenn and sienna made.

Tuesday June 21, 2011 – Kariakoo

Today we went to Kariakoo market, it’s a local market that the locals go to. It was so packed and chaotic there, people everywhere, stores everywhere, cars weaving in and out of the small streets and people bugging you to buy their stuff. I found some cool African woven bowls there but other than that there wasn’t much for us to buy; mostly just fruit, vegetables, clothes, some jewellery, and fabric. It was really neat to experience it though. At times I felt a bit worried that we might get something stolen from us, but wasn’t too worried because we were in a big group and we all just kept our purses in front of us. It is very common for people to get pick pocketed there though. 

In the middle of the market there was this big pile of garbage just sitting there, I guess they just used it as sort of like a dump. They don’t really have garbage dumps here or a good disposal system. I was shocked to learn that garbage is burned or thrown in the drain! Drains on the side of the road are filled with garbage. Also there is no recycling of water bottles and they do reuse glass pop and beer cans but other than that there’s no recycling.  

Sunday June 19, 2011 – Father’s Day

What Is A Dad?

A dad is someone who
wants to catch you before you fall
but instead picks you up,
brushes you off,
and lets you try again.

A dad is someone who
wants to keep you from making mistakes
but instead lets you find your own way,
even though his heart breaks in silence
when you get hurt.

A dad is someone who
holds you when you cry,
scolds you when you break the rules,
shines with pride when you succeed,
and has faith in you even when you fail...

- Unknown

I think this is the first father’s day I’ve ever missed and I’m really sad I can’t be home to spend it with my Dad and family! I hope you have a great day and know that I am thinking of you! I love you Dad!!!

Even though it sucks not to be home, I was surrounded today by the love of fatherless children and I felt blessed!

River Rafting last summer down the Thompson!

While talking to L, the oldest kid, at boona baana today about Tanzanian politics and government corruption, we asked him if he felt that he was luckier than lots of the other kids in Tanzania because he was funded to go to international school and most kids have to go to private school. He responded “I’m not lucky…..I’m blessed”. And he is so right, he’s definitely blessed. He is such a smart kid and he knows exactly what’s going on in Tanzania and why things are the way they are, I learned a lot from him today. He told us a story about one of his friends and how you have to have certain grades and do well on an exam in order to be accepted by an international school. L ended up getting accepted and goes to international school because he is funded by a family in Australia and he’s smart so he passed the entrance exam, but his friend took the same exam and failed. The catch is that his friend took the exam a second time and paid the people who mark the exams money, and then he ended up with a B and was accepted into the school. He said international private schools are the best schools to go to but there is corruption everywhere even in those schools, from the teachers to the syllabus to the government. We also talked a bit about when Tanzania got independence in 1961 and how they are now a democracy but not a true democracy because of the corruption. He said something about how the one party, CCM, is in power and doesn’t do much good for Tanzania. It was interesting because he said that Rwanda’s government is actually really good and he wishes Tanzania could be more like Rwanda.

Below is a picture of a primary school that has just been recently painted inside. The idea is that because there aren’t any books or supplies or anything, that the paintings are a sustainable and affordable way to provide the kids with the letters of the alphabet, etc, but most schools don't even have this. It is a two room school that holds about 40 kids and two teachers, there’s nothing in the rooms except for a mat, one desk, and a chalk board.

The lady that owns this place said that another major problem is that when it rains the rooms sometimes get filled up with water because their are no glass on the windows so if the rain is blowing in a certain direction the floors get really wet. This is the same for the orphanage that is on this property as well, there just isn't enough funding to fix everything.

Saturday June 18, 2011 – Trip to City Centre

Found out a couple days ago that one of the interns on the trip has malaria, so he is very sick and none of us has seen him for about two days now. During dinner mid sub sandwich he got up and said he would be right back and had to go to the bathroom, he never returned and then his wife took him to the hospital and they tested him for malaria. We’re all very cautious not to miss a malaria pill now! A bunch of us went to city centre today because I hadn’t been there yet and wanted to check it out. We bought our bus tickets for Arusha and then went to the National Museum, a delicious thai restaurant for lunch, and then to the Kilimanjaro Hotel for a cappuccino! At the thai restaurant we got a dish of choice (I got veggie pad thai) and a drink for 8,000 tsh which is $5.33! And we were all overly stuffed afterwards, so it was a pretty good deal! We’re gonna go back to city center on Tuesday to see the fish market and check out Kariakoo market because we ran out of time today! Kariakoo market is a local market not tailored to tourists so it will neat to experience it and they also have an underground market that were gonna go to as well. The National Museum today was kinda cool to see, I wouldn’t go back but it was worth a visit. They had lots of stuff on the slave trade and history of Africa from colonialism to present, as well as information and fossils of some of the early hominids. I took an anthropology class a couple semesters ago, so it was nice to be able to recognize the different types of hominids and the names of them. It would be so cool to be able to go see Olduvai Gorge where a lot of the fossils were found because it is near the Arusha area in the Great Rift Valley.  

Pretending to be dinosaurs!

Another thing I’ve noticed in Dar is that there is no fast food places anywhere! I know Africa’s a developing country but I kinda just expected to see at least a McDonalds or something, but there’s not! Which is more than okay with me, but it’s just weird not seeing fast food on every corner!

Friday June 17, 2011

This morning I decided to learn the days of the week in Swahili! So to say “today is Friday 17 June, 2011” you’d say “Leo ni Ijumaa tarehe kumi na saba, mwezi wa sita, mwaka elfu mbili kumi na moja” which actually reads “today is Friday date seventeen, month june, two thousand and eleven”. Quite a lot of work to say the date, haha!

There can be no assumption that today’s majority is “right” and others are “wrong.” A way of life that is odd or even erratic but interferes with no right or interests of others is not to be condemned because it is different.
-- Justice Warren Burger

At one of our Swahili lessons our teacher mapped out the contrasts between African and Canadian culture. Although I’ve been experiencing and noticing the differences personally every day, it was helpful to see them down on paper. Some of the main differences we discussed were direct versus indirect speech, time, status, guilt/shame, religion, certainty/uncertainty, and individual/collective. With direct versus indirect speech, Canadians are very to the point and often get annoyed or just altogether leave out unnecessary speech in order to get their point across and get the ‘job’ done, so to speak. Whereas Tanzanians are more likely to just talk to each other more randomly even if it goes off topic and this is accepted and enjoyed. Time is another factor that is looked at through a very different lens! In Tanzania time is plenty and in Canada time is money! Canadians constantly feel rushed and have the mentality that they need to get as much as they can done in as quick as possible…no time to waste! We could learn a lot from Tanzanian’s in this regard because they are much more laid back about their understanding of time. They never seemed rushed and being late is not considered rude or uncommon. It seems like people spend a lot of time waiting around and ‘wasting’ time, but it’s that they are less stressed about it and don’t considered it being ‘wasted’ when they spend those extra minutes talking to a friend or the like. Status is something that you must work for in Canada, for the most part, but in Tanzania status is ascribed, therefore you acquire it from things like old age. When you do something that you know you shouldn’t, like stealing, you tend to feel guilt regardless of whether you’ve been caught or not, so for example, in Canada if you stole something and got away with it most people would still feel guilty, but in Tanzania most people would not feel guilty they would feel shame and only if they were caught. I found this difference really interesting because it depends on whether someone else has caught them do they feel shame, therefore if they get away with something it doesn’t affect them as much and they don’t worry about it. Another difference is our feeling of certainty in Canada, we tend to take risks and not worry or fear about trying new things. In Tanzania, they are more uncertain in this regard and often won’t take risks or try new things, such as changing jobs. And a pretty obvious difference is our individualistic culture and their collectivist culture. We are raised to think for ourselves and do things for ourselves rather than for others. We don’t work as a team and we constantly strive for individual gains even at the expense of others. In Tanzania, they think about others and will often forego individual gain if the gain for the larger collective group is greater. Through my experiences here, I’ve noticed this in the children when we play games, they are noticeably less competitive then the children back home. They aren’t as worried about winning a game and will help each other rather than trying to be the winner or doing better than their peers. In addition, a major difference is that I’ve rarely ever seen them fight! They tend to just share better, for example, if someone has a book or toy that another child wants and that child comes over and takes that toy, the kid who had it in the first place will let the other kid have it and they will go get another, no big deal! This blew my mind because I always expect a fight to break out but it never does!

These are only some of the differences between our cultures, and these are minor differences, but in regards to the quote above it’s so important not to have the perspective that your way is the right way or you won’t enjoy your time in a different country. You have to be open to different ways of life and just enjoy the differences, without thinking it’s not as good as the way you do it at home, etc. Neither way is superior, their only different! And often when you are open minded you’ll realize new ways of doing things that are better! Sometimes there are differences that you may not agree with, but you have to be considerate of the culture and their practices without putting them down or lecturing locals about it because it’s something they believe in.

Usiku mwema, lala fofofo! (Goodnight, sleep like a log!)

Thursday June 16, 2011 - Morning after the Stanley Cup Playoff

Caught up on my journals today and then went to the Green Door Home! Today was a good day because all the kids from the green door came out to play games with us. Normally it’s the same one’s all the time that come play and hang out with us and a couple of the older boys tend to stay inside and do their own thing because they are at that age. Also the girls sometimes don’t play games with us and just watch, but today everyone was playing, so it was really good! Also, all the kids helped us come up with a Swahili word that goes with each letter of the alphabet. We decided to make a little alphabet book for them because the one they have is so Westernized that “A” is for “apple” and “B” is for “balloon” for example. A couple of the younger kids have trouble reading still and we figured it would be easier for them to remember letters and their pronunciation if the letter corresponded to a word they knew rather than having to learn both a letter and an English word they don’t use on a regular basis. So now were just going to put a book together with the Swahili words, letter, and picture of the word. We are kinda wishful thinkers but it would be super cool if we could later actually publish a nicer version of this book and sell it with the proceeds going back to the boona baana kids.

"We worry about what a child will be tomorrow, yet we forget that the child is already someone today" -- Stacia Tauscher

The above quote speaks loudly because throughout history and continuing today, children are often forgotten, or if not forgotten, exploited and used rather than accepted as one and as a human being. Children need rights and they deserve rights just as much as anyone else. Education is so important and can give these kids the opportunities they need and a better chance for their future. The only downfall is that the education system in Africa is taught in English and therefore without the proper foundation of the English language, regardless of intelligence, type of school, or even a wealthy family, the child will not succeed in this type of system. The kids at boona baana are so intelligent but they need a better grasp of the English language in order to succeed in school. One of the older boys was telling me that in many schools they teach in Swahili in the primary grades and don’t teach any English and then when they go into the middle schools and high schools they are thrown into English dominated classes and expected to know what they are doing…clearly this is an inefficient and unsuccessful way to operate. I can’t say it is like this at all the schools, but I know its common enough. Children need to be given the tools they need to succeed and when they are given these, they will not only succeed, but prosper and I think this is true of many children.

As everyone knows the Canucks lost last night L We all stayed up to watch it and I barely slept at all! It was shameful to hear what happened after the game with the riots, ruins the whole experience and excitement of the Stanley Cup L It’s a shame that a few had to ruin it for everyone. Best analysis from last night I've read yet: "In a way, we could thank the testosterone-laden morons for reminding a hockey crazed city that the real heroes in society don't play a game for money; the real heroes fight fires, drive ambulances, treat the sick, and clean-up garbage.” On the bright side there was a lunar eclipse last night so it was neat that we were already awake so we could see it because it looked pretty cool and the sky was crystal clear!!

Tuesday June 14, 2011 – KidzCare kids come to Mikocheni B!

Hanging out in the girls' room at boona baana!

This morning Kara and I went to Boona Baana for a couple hours because three of the younger kids were home from school today. The older kids have mock exams all this week so the rest of the school just has the week off. We painted toe nails, played trouble, and watched a bit of tv that they were very adamant on watching. Then at 2pm the kids from KidzCare came over to our place to play, have dinner, and watch a movie on our projector! They were so cute, all of them dressed up to come over and they looked adorable. We drew and played games and then had spaghetti for dinner! They had a blast and so did all of us!

Kids from KidzCare playing games on our roof!

We watched the Lion King with KidzCare on our projector because they had never seen it!

Monday June 13, 2011

This morning I worked on homework, got my map of East Africa done! Made iced coffee’s again and this time added chocolate syrup in them!  Then at 2pm we went to boona baana. Lately we’ve been having some trouble with figuring out what were allowed to do and what were not allowed to do here because of the responsibility that UFV has over us here. We are trying to plan a trip to Arusha, a safari and some people want to go to Kenya but it’s been hard figuring it out and arranging a way to do it so that the University will be okay with it. Even little things like riding the tuk tuk’s (pronounced took took) are off limits. It’s understandable because we are on an internship and they are responsible for us, but it makes it a lot harder to do things!

I took a picture of the tuk tuk’s the other day, so I’ll explain what they are. They are named after the sound that their small two cycle engines and originated in Japan. They are a super cheap, three wheeled, convenient and fast form transportation. They are sort of dangerous because they are so small and the sides of them are open, but they are able to usually bypass the heavy traffic by going up the side of the roads. They are everywhere and a lot of the locals take them.

There are also Dala Dala’s, another form of transportation here that we aren’t allowed to use! They are very cheap and they are called that because the Swahili pronounciation of the English word “dollar”. When they first were invented it cost five shillings (which is practically free, haha!) and these were the size of a silver dollar. A Dala-dala is more like a pickup truck or van and has benches inside around the edges and a roof on top. There is no tailgate on them, but instead steps are there so that people can board them easier. The idea is for people to sit on the benches but we usually see them so crowded there are people pushed up against the windows and standing in the middle.

Sunday June 12, 2011 - Throw Down Your Heart

Went to Bagamoyo today, which is a town 75 kilometers North of Dar es Salaam. We left at 8am and it took about 45 minutes to get there. It was nice to get out of Dar to an area that is less populated and more of a calm atmosphere. Bagamoyo was an old slave and ivory port, as well as a passing town for some famous explorers such as Livingston, Stanley, Burton, Speke, and Grant. The word Bagamoyo comes from the Swahili words for bwaga moyo, meaning throw down your heart, an expression that reflects the thoughts of the many slaves in regards to their outlook of their future. Our first stop was the Kaole ruins where we saw where a bunch of old graves were. We also saw a 15^th century mosque as well as a 500 year old baobab tree. After the Kaole ruins we went to a few of the little shops on the side of the road where there were really nice wood carvings for cheaper than you can find in Dar and you can watch them make them right in the back of their shops, which was neat. We searched for a place to each lunch, which we packed, but there were no places that allowed picnickers, or as they say picnicki! During our search we found the Bagamoyo church that was built in 1868 and was the first church on the East Coast of Africa. We ended up driving around until we were so hungry that we stopped at this little local fire hall and they let us eat our lunch there. They were really nice and let us put on their fire jackets and helmets and take a picture in front of the fire truck. The building was just built last year and the fire truck was really new and nice, which was surprising because the rest of the town was old and full of ruins. After lunch we went to the art market and it was so cool there! There were tons of authentic African art as well as wood carvings. I found this one picture that I loved, but of course it was 350,000 tsh! The one guy that did a lot of the really nice paintings ended up being friends with our cab driver, Iddy, since they were little! He even had his own website of his paintings! At around 3pm we headed home and made iced coffee’s (ahhh, so good….very peachy!)!

Field of Sunflowers!

Where they used to chain the slaves to before they auctioned them off at the slave market

The fish market where they start auctioning off fish as soon as they catch them

June 17, 1868: the first Catholics arrived in Bagamoyo...1990: Pope John Paul II arrived and they erected this cross on the same site as the original cross.

I love love love this painting!

Friday June 10 and Sat June 11, 2011

Friday June 10, 2011

Went to Mwenge today to do a little bit of shopping for gifts! I love the Mwenge market, the people are kinda pushy but you can usually bargain with them and get them down on their prices. They automatically try to charge you double because you’re a Mzungu, so you have to stand your ground and say you won’t buy it for that much and usually they are happy just to make a sale so they will go down to a lesser price….It really helps knowing the numbers in Swahili, so for example, if you see something you like you ask “Bei gani” which means “how much?” and then they will say something like “elfu moja na tano” which means 15,000…and then you could say “hapana, elfu kumi” which means no, 10,000 and usually they will go for it or try for 12,000. For dinner we went to Arca again for pizza, and once again it was delicious! I had artichoke, mushroom and onion pizza and a Stoney Tangaweezy, which is an extra gingery ginger ale! Both were really yummy!

Sat June 11, 2011

This morning Nicole and Jenny arrived and a bunch of us just stayed home in the morning and baked! We made scones and then mango crisp for dessert later. We had an assembly line going! At 2pm we went to boona baana and played some fun games. It was my night to cook again so we made Daal, rice, homemade chapatti, and greek salad. It turned out really good!

Thursday June 9, 2011

Went to slipway today and did a bit of shopping at the market! Around noon we went to South Beach which is its own island and it only took a 2 minute ferry ride to get there. Because there are practically no bridges in Dar they have to use ferries to cross small bodies of water that you would normally just cross on a bridge. Another example of how the infrastructure needs to be improved and it should start with roads and bridges because it would make life a lot easier! The beach at South Beach was really nice except where we went you could walk out forever because the tide was way out! We saw some really neat looking star fish, crabs, fish, coral, and walked through some seaweed that was just like grass! After the beach we ate at a street vendor and I had chips and an omelette. It was actually pretty good. We also go to see the Tanzanian White House! Then went home and went to bed right after dinner cuz still wasn’t feeling well.

Wednesday June 8, 2011

Woke up without a stomach anymore, but my throat is still hurting. This afternoon a few of us went to SeaCliff Hotel to use their internet and this hotel is immaculate! It might be the nicest hotel I’ve ever seen! A bunch of celebrities have stayed here too, including Angelina Jolie! I ordered a cappuccino and it was the first good tasting and normal sized coffee I’ve had here yet, so I was happy!  

At 3pm Iddy took six of us to the Tanzanian Forest Conservation Group: http://www.tfcg.org/index.html It’s an NGO here in Dar dedicated to protecting the high biodiversity forests of Tanzania. It was difficult to understand what the guy was saying because he had a really thick Tanzanian accent, but we got a bunch of pamphlets which helped!!

Went for Ethiopian food tonight for dinner and it was definitely my peach! I didn’t know what to expect as I’ve never had it before, but man was it good! They brought out this giant plate with a huge piece of thin bread-like stuff on it and then they dump different types of dishes on it and everyone shares by dipping bread and picking the food up with the bread! It was so cool! I definitely want to go back and they had a ton of vegetarian and vegan options too! Except their bathroom was kinda creepy, haha, the door had this freaky looking doll hanging on it and then you go inside and it’s the tiniest little room ever with a toilet that is practically up against the wall on three sides including the front so you can’t even sit down!! It was an experience in itself, haha!

TFCG

A flooded street just outside the Tanzanian Forest Conservation Group (TFCG)

Urgh! Can't figure out how to rotate this pic!!!

Bumpy Road

Only the main roads here are paved and even so they don't compare to the paved roads at home. Here's a picture of how most of roads here look!

One of the roads on the way to Boona Baana

Tues June 7, 2011

I actually woke up to watch the game and they lost 8-1 L Oh well, it was predicted they would lose, so we’ll have to come back strong next game! After the game I had a nap, and not a good one at that so I was pretty tired all day. Today I started another assignment and worked on booking my safari for the end of June! I think I’m going to do Serengeti with the rest of the group, so I’m super excited! We can get a really good rate if we all go together and apparently Serengeti is the best place to see the Big 5 of Tanzania (lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard, and rhino) as well as many other animals including zebras and giraffe’s. Also if we all go together the cost of transportation to and from the safari will be cheaper. We’re going to go on the safari and then stay in Arusha for 4 days before we head back to Dar.

I’m thinking about maybe doing one of my literature reviews on gender equality in Tanzania and today I found this really interesting article in a local Dar newspaper, The Citizen, called “Project Tembo working to empower Tanzanian women”. Job opportunities and education in Tanzania remain limited for women, with many women dropping out or not pursuing secondary school because they marry early and have children. An Ottawa based charity, called Project Tembo, is working towards empowering girls and women to achieve further education. So far, they have sponsored 128 girls to go to secondary school. They also host residential camps to help secondary school girls with their English and boost self-confidence. Secondary school is completely taught in English, therefore presenting challenges for many students whose English is often their 2^nd or 3^rd language. Project Tembo has opened the Longido Community Library to make books available to children in Swahili and English, and provides micro-finance loans and micro-business opportunities for women. Without Canadian supporters and volunteers, Project Tembo would not be able to continue operating in Tanzania. Some of the fundraising they do include plant and used book sales, an African marketplace, luncheon, silent auction, and Tanzanian delicacies.

Cute picture I took the other day at Boona Baana!

Went to bed super early tonight as I wasn’t feeling good, sore throat plus stomach ache L Not fun!

Monday June 6, 2011

Woke up with a scratchy throat this morning and I think I’m getting a cold, which is odd because it’s one of the hottest places on Earth! Then I went to have a shower and the power went out so it was freezing cold, but kinda refreshing after the initial shock! Went to Seacliff today with Kara to use the internet and get some work done, then we went to boona baana at 3pm. In addition to the insane amount of traffic here because of lack of money put towards building roads and bridges, in addition to increasing populations, the way that drivers use their horns here is also very different from what I’m used to. Horns are less frequently used when someone is mad or about to get in an accident and are used instead on a regular basis when driving to alert other drivers they are coming up beside them or driving down the road to let drivers know not to hit them. For example, we’ll be driving down a road and our driver will honk to let those turning onto the road not to hit us. This is what all drivers do because it is so busy and congested that there are cars trying to squeeze in every which way in order to get to their final destination on time. So you could imagine how loud it is on the streets here with the constant honks. You must give yourself an abundance of time in order to get anywhere on time. This may be one reason why African’s are less concerned with being on time than Westerners! It’s not a big deal to be late for appointments or meetings here and is not necessarily considered rude like it is at home!  

It was Jenn’s actual birthday today so we had French toast, fruit and ice cream for dinner!

We’re going to stay up late tonight to watch the Canucks game so I’m going to try to go to bed early because we have to wake up at 3am in order to watch it!

Sun June 5, 2011 - Lazy Sunday

Canucks Rock! They won again yesterday (or this morning for us)! This morning we did a quick work out and then went to Shoppers to get some groceries. I did laundry today by hand! I’m starting to get better at doing it now and my clothes are smelling better and better, but it still takes a lot of time to do a small amount of clothes. It was overcast again today, but still really hot! Today was the first day that I just stayed home for most the day (until 3pm to go to Boona Baana), lounging around and getting the little things done like laundry, so it was actually really nice! My days are usually go, go, go, so it was good to take it slow today. Moriah and I have discovered this little market close to our house that sells fresh fruits and veggies and they are actually really good quality so now we walk there every morning and get a GIANT avocado, two cucumbers, a mango, a carrot, and sometimes mini bananas and a pineapple for just 4,000 tsh, which is like $2 and it ends up being so much that we split it (so actually $1 each) and then we go home and make homemade hummus and have that for lunch! We are both so excited that we found a cheap healthy way to have lunch!!!

I got a huge thing of water today at Shoppers and when I got home to pour some into a water bottle the seal was already broken, grr! We were warned about this, I guess it happens every once in a while people try to re-seal them with tap water! I don’t know if this was actually the case but I didn’t want to risk it so for the first time I used the water bottle my dad gave me that cleans 99.8% of even the dirtiest water, thanks Dad!! I was nervous at first to use it, so I just have been buying bottled water, but maybe I’ll be able to just use it with the tap water from now on!! At shoppers I found a really yummy snack food, there called Poppa Dums and they are kinda like a chip but healthier and its cumin seed flavoured (Mom, you would love them!), and they are actually really healthy for you! Made out of lentil flour, oil, salt and cumin… I will try to bring some back with me!

Today at Boona Baana the kids just felt like having a chill day so we just all hung out, talked, played cards, and the board game trouble. It was fun. The youngest girl, E, taught us a new card game called slap and then we taught everyone how to play war. E is so funny she always says “Wha-tah!” instead of “what” and “Ali-baba!” instead of “oh-geez” or something similar, and now she’s got me and Kara saying it at home, haha!!

Being around kids all the time is the greatest but it also makes me really miss my own niece and nephew! Love you guys and it’s not the same without you! Miss you tons and we’ll see you soon little baboons!!

Sat June 4, 2011 - Jen and Jesse's Birthday Dinner

Today was a cloudy and rainy day. It was about 29 degrees out and I felt cold at parts of the day, so I guess maybe I’m becoming more acclimatised to the heat! On our morning jog we had an unfortunate event happen to us. We were jogging along the beach and up ahead there was a man standing a couple meters away from the shoreline and he just dropped his pants infront of us!!!! So he was just standing there pantless, it was the strangest thing ever and we weren’t sure what to think and just sped up so we could get past him asap! Afterwards we thought maybe he only owned one pair of pants and needed to wash them or something, I donno, but it was weird! Tonight we celebrated two of the girls birthdays, one is on Mon and the other is on Tues, so we decided to go for dinner and celebrate both at once on Sat! We went to this neat little restaurant called The Arc about 15 minutes away from where were staying and it was in the shape of Noah’s Arc! They had really good food and me and another girl split a vegetarian pizza, it was delicious! It hasn’t been as hard as I thought it would be to remain a vegetarian here, so I’m happy about that!

Girl Pic!

Earlier today I was researching different NGO’s in Tanzania related to children’s rights and I found this one in Arusha called SOS Children’s Villages, so I emailed them to see if we could visit it when we go on our week trip to Arusha at the end of June. Anyways it was just weird because later in the day I was reading the local newspaper, The Guardian, and there was a write up on this NGO!! In a nut shell the article talked about how SOS Children’s Villages is an organization that takes care of vulnerable children but after forty years in Africa are currently having funding difficulties. The formed a partnership with Customer Passion Point Limited so they can assist with fundraising instead of relying on external donors/donations, since these have declined substantially over the past years. Funds are needed to continue with their programs that are planned for this year. Although they won’t be able to have the desired number of 400 children, they are still able to raise 123 children at the center and 200 outside the center. The programs are family based care and family strengthening programmes aimed to help families in need so that children can stay with their families or relatives instead of going to orphanages. In cases where children have no family they are supported at the center and provided with health care and education.

Thursday June 2, 2011 - Under the Same Sun

Didn’t end up waking up for the Canucks game at 3am last night L But super excited they won!!!!!! Go Canucks Go! J This morning six of us went to a non-profit Canadian organization (NGO) founded in 2008, called Under the Same Sun, here’s the website http://www.underthesamesun.com/

They are dedicated to protecting, educating and advocating for persons with albinism (PWA) here in Africa. It was really interesting and I’m glad I went! They were very welcoming and passionate about their work. The organization has 10 albino’s and three black’s working for them at the moment. Their main office is in Canada and their other one is here in Dar es Salaam, the one we just visited. The owner of the organization, Peter Ash, is from Langley, British Columbia and is a person with albinism! I think its great there is an office here in Dar because albinism is quite prevalent in Africa, more so than in the rest of the world, with around 1 in 2,000 people being born with albinism. We went into a conference room where we were given a talk about some background information about albinism, what it is, and what Under the Same Sun does. Their focus is on education and advocacy because one of the main reasons why they are discriminated against is due to lack of education about what albinism really is. A lot of stigma is in the rural areas and it’s precisely because they look different. Albinism is a risk factor for abuse, skin cancer, discrimination, and murder. We were told that around 93% of the population of Tanzania believes in witchcraft and many of these beliefs correspond with the idea that albinism is a curse and that the child should be killed at birth. If the child is not killed at birth they are generally killed later in life or hunted down for their organs and limbs. The myth is that these body parts will create wealth in the person or persons who possess them by bringing them to witch doctors to put in potions. In most instances when an albino is killed, it is secret and the bodies are buried inside homes and the rest of the community believes that the person has just ‘vanished’ contributing to the witchcraft idea. An albino’s leg bone is believed to bring its owner to places where gold is buried similar to a metal detector and then the fresh blood is used to pour over the spot and the direction that it trickles will indicate the exact area where to dig to find the gold. Hair is used to sprinkle in ocean and lakes and believed to bring fish. It was a privilege to talk to these people who are going through these difficulties of threat and discrimination because they are very underrepresented and often ignored throughout the world, yet in many cases need the most help. In Dar es Salaam, they are African’s but discouraged from being part of the culture with feelings of being outcasts and evil curses just because of their pigmentation.

It makes me sad that people have had to die because of ignorance and lack of education. Beliefs and myths can be so powerful and concrete that they persist even with education. The government, state, big shots and many others are often educated about people with albinism but fail to acknowledge their rights because of the dominant belief of witchcraft and the normalness of corruption in Africa. Many cases of murder are unreported because of this corruption. The other two major reasons for lack of conviction is the fear related to witchcraft and those in power, and also because of the culture of secrecy. The cause of albinism is genetic, therefore it’s not contagious, it’s not magic, and it definitely doesn’t make them less of a person than you or I. For an infant to get albinism, both their mother and father must be carrying a recessive gene and that child must inherit both those recessive genes. Therefore, a child with albinism can often have black siblings and both of their parents can also be black. They can also have black children if their partner doesn’t have the recessive gene or if the child doesn’t inherit two recessive genes for the trait.

One of the many things I learned today was that almost all people with albinism are visually impaired, have low vision, or are blind. We were invited to come back to the office later in June to attend a meeting with a low vision specialist who is coming to provide eye exams and eye health for the students enrolled in the education scholarship fund (a fund created by Under the Same Sun to fund vulnerable people with albinism to go through school, get education, health care, sun screen, long sleeved shirts, hats, sunglasses, and medication for skin cancer. Another thing they provide to their students is self-awareness (which made me very happy to hear being a psych student) so they can have a better understanding of who they are and how they fit in so they can move forward with increased self-esteem; they currently have 318 students!). They also work alongside the Red Cross and Unicef. I left having a better understanding of not only albinism but also about disadvantaged groups as a whole. As we were leaving they provided us with posters and a documentary movie, as well as a group photo!

After the meeting, we stopped at this little bakery down the road from us and got samosas for lunch (again!). It only cost me about $1 for three samosas and they are so delicious! At 3pm I went to boona baana (Jodi’s last day L). The kids were really sad to see her go. We also played another awesome game of soccer, it was so much fun and L made a movie for us out of all the pictures we have taken from boona baana so far! Tonight was also my night to cook dinner for the group so we made a pilau rice with mixed vegetables and spices inside pineapple bowls and heated in the oven! I got the idea from the Kunduchi restaurant because that’s what I had for lunch the other day! Our taxi driver, Yona, came over for dinner and ended up showing us how to make a traditional Tanzanian rice pilau and it was to die for! There was coriander, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, and garlic in it plus a bunch of cut up veggies! He also showed us how to make the yummiest prawns ever! It was a great dinner!

Wed June 1st, 2011 - kundushi beach

Today we went to Kunduchi Beach Resort again to get some more homework done on their faster internet (although today is slower than yesterday for some reason). On the way here we once again were pointed out an called “Mzungu’s” which means Europeans white people! We hear this phrase on a daily basis and are constantly being stared at all day because of our skin color. We got to Kunduchi before the tide came in and walked out a far ways and onto this separate island, it was so pretty! For lunch today we went to the restaurant at the resort and it took almost 2 hours! But that’s been fairly typical for eating out here, they aren’t worried about being quick and efficient like in a Western culture, so it’s hard to get used to because we expect things to go certain ways and when they don’t we feel like its bad service or something but that’s just how it is here. There’s also a lot of language barriers that we have to deal with like today for example, I ordered an Americano coffee and it never came so once our food came I asked if my coffee was still coming and he was said yes but brought me old brewed coffee (and I NEVER complain about service, etc, and I mean NEVER) but this coffee had like a greasy layer on top of it and looked horrible so I said I didn’t want it and he brought me and Americano and forgot to bring milk so then brought over a cappuccino when I asked for milk, haha! And then to make matters worse his manager came over after and asked me to fill out a comment form because they thought I was complaining!!! First time ever sending food back at a restaurant and let me tell you, I will never send anything back ever again!! Lol! Tonight we are going to go out and do some karaoke at this Irish Pub not far from our place, so that should be interesting J And then at 3am were going to wake up and listen to the Canucks game!!!