Experiencing Clinic Day

On the first and last Wednesday of each month, the MCH (mother-child-health) centre in Usolonga hosts “clinic day”, where children under the age of five are brought in to be weighed and have their health cards updated. Vaccinations are given to those who require them, and children who are severely underweight are referred to the doctor. It so happened that our second day in the village fell on clinic day. Jen and I weren’t too sure what we were going to do, but we’re told that it would be a good idea to show up and help out where needed –thankfully we were also told to expect mad chaos.
If I only had the words to accurately describe the way I felt that Wednesday morning! We had been told that clinic started at 8:30am, so being the keeners that we are we showed up at 8:15 –only to find that the ‘waiting room’ (which is basically an outdoor courtyard) had already began to fill with mothers and their children. I was very surprised to see so many mothers “on time”, but in true Tanzanian fashion, things didn’t get rolling until almost 10:00am! Seeing as this was our first big event in the village, it would be an understatement to say that we were noticed! From the moment we walked into the courtyard curious mothers and small children instantly surrounded us. Some of the children started crying when they saw us, for a majority of them we were the first white people they had ever come in contact with! (I kept telling myself that this was why they were frightened, that it wasn’t per se us they were scared of….) Most of the mothers found humor in this and proceeded to force their screaming child in our direction to see what their reaction would be! While we waited for the health representatives to arrive and get things started, we tried our best to communicate with the waiting mothers; there were approximately 200 in all! We weren’t able to say much, besides our names, where we were from and what we were doing there. Most women were very welcoming and understanding of our limited Swahili. Just before 10:00am, the health reps showed up but didn’t think it necessary to start right away, nor to introduce themselves –finally, after twenty minutes of waiting I entered the ‘weighing’ room and attempted to introduce myself…luckily Stella, the nurse came to my rescue and facilitated proper introductions. When asked what time things would get underway, we were informed that they were just waiting for us to start teaching! After clearing up the miscommunication and explaining to them that we were only there to help out, they finally got things started! For the next three hours we assisted in the weighing, recording and charting of nearly 200 children! Needless to say, by the end of ‘clinic’ day we had had our fill of cute African babies!

Village life

We’ve officially moved into our home in the village! There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but it is now livable! This is a picture taken from our 'kitchen' window! Our first two weeks of village life have been very eventful and quite exciting! I should start by giving a short description of the village I will be spending the next 6 months inhabiting. Usolonga, also known as Mbolimboli, is a fairly small, remote village situated approximately 70 km north west of Iringa, in the bottom of the rift valley. The last survey conducted recorded a population of approximately 3200 people, 50% of whom were under the age of 15! There is essentially one road into the village and one road out, making it quite isolated. Due to the dry season, the landscape resembles a desert; all you see for miles are little mud huts and lots of sand! The clinic and staff houses are situated on the outskirts of the village, a good ten-minute walk from its centre! The clinic is open each weekday from 8:00am to 2:00pm and local villagers are encouraged to visit on a drop in basis during these times. The doctor and nurse however are technically always on call, and are summoned from their homes if they are needed for an emergency or if there’s a birth. The atmosphere is fairly relaxed and laid back; the staff have been very welcoming and patient as we butcher their native tongue. (Although I must say that our Swahili has improved tremendously since being in the village!) I’m quickly adjusting to “Tanzanian” time, learning that things usually don’t happen when people say they will, being “on time” is an abstract concept that many locals are unfamiliar with and the pace of life is about three times slower than I’m used to, but hey, I’m not complaining! With 40+ degrees temperature, no electricity, and no running water, it is understandable that things usually take longer to accomplish.
Our first two weeks were primarily spent cleaning, painting, getting to know the staff and practicing our newly learned Swahili! In the mornings we took turns shadowing the nurse and doctor in order to gain a better understanding of their daily routine, the common ailments that present themselves and to make ourselves known to some of the local villagers. We’ve met with the headmaster at the local primary school and have scheduled an introduction session with the various classes for later on this week. We’ll also be conducting an informal survey in each class in hopes of determining their level of health care awareness. Seeing as the students have a month off for Christmas, we won’t actually start teaching until January. In the meantime, we’ll be creating lesson plans and making changes to the previous curriculum in order to prepare ourselves for January. When we’re not at the school (we have yet to determine our teaching schedule –it’ll depend on how comfortable we are in the classroom and how much time we want to devote to other projects) we’ll be working at the clinic and with the local health representatives. Our goal is to come up with some easy-to-use teaching material and train the health reps so that they in turn will be able to teach the locals when we are gone. There is definitely no shortage of work to be done! Jen hopes to start a home garden, as part of her nutrition work and we also hope to introduce some new water purification techniques. Unfortunately, given the lack of resources and next to nil education they have on the subject, it is not as easy as one would initially think. There are many underlying issues and challenges to work through –but we are hopeful!

Who would have thought that I'd meet Miss Piggy in Tanzania??

I don't think I've ever laughed as hard as I did on the night of November 5th, the occassion? Jen's birthday! Jen is a fellow CIDA intern whom I have the pleasure of working and sharing a house with everyday in Usolonga. We happened to be in town on her birthday and had a lovely birthday meal and celabration at Andrew and Miriam's house, our in-country reps. I've never seen anyone so appreciative of birthday gifts before! Jen, who has a little crush on Mr. Bean, was moved to tears by the Mr. Bean DVD we managed to find for her! Unfortunately, the disc was a dud and instead of hosting ten Bean movies, it only had two. Never mind, she enjoyed it just the same! The icing on the cake though came later on in the evening when her final gift was danced (Tanzanian style -remember the dancing of gifts at the wedding?) to her and she unwrapped her beloved Miss Piggy 'costume'! The story behind the pig: (and I apologize if this isn't funny to anyone else -it may be one of those "you had to have been there" moments, although I'm sure you can appreciate how disturbingly funny this "thing" of a costume is!) About a month ago, when shopping in the market, Jen noticed this Miss Piggy costume hanging at one of the vendor's booths. Having pointed it out to the rest of us, we all had a good laugh and wondered where this thing came from! It was by far the most disturbing second-hand article we had come across! It soon became routine that whenever we would go to the market, we would keep an eye out for Miss Piggy. She was faithfully waiting for us each time, hanging from the booth -it was actually very spooky the way they had her hanging by her neck! A few times we would stop in and ask how much she cost, eventually the vendor would see us coming and would automatically get Miss Piggy down so Jen could have a look! It seemed rather fitting to purchase the costume for Jen's birthday -I suspect she knew it was coming, not only had we told her she'd better be careful because she'd end up with it one day, she had also gone to the market the morning of her birthday and was suspicious when her beloved pig wasn't there! She was a really good sport and pranced around in the costume for the rest of the evening, posing for pictures and all! The only unfortunate thing is that now Miss Piggy lives at our house! Jen's convinced that she'll be able to re-sell the costume or give it away...any muppet fans out there? ;)

Safari!

I must apologize for not being diligent about keeping this blog site up to date! I've been in Tanzania now for two months and much has happened in that short amount of time! The first weekend in November, eight wazungus, myself included, set out on a safari to Ruaha National Park; a three hour drive west of Iringa. I had always thought it'd be neat to go on an African safari, although I have to admit, the idea of sitting in a vehicle looking at animals all day didn't sound overally appealing. I quickly changed my opinion, however shortly after seeing the first giraffe! Seeing these animals up close in their natural habitat is absolutely amazing! We were very fortunate and got to see many different animals -including four out of the "big five" (lions, elephants, buffalo, and a leopard -there are no rhinos in Ruaha!) We had a wonderful time, I would recommend an African safari to anyone coming! Two highlights from the trip included seeing a pride of lions devour a freshly killed zebra, and spotting a leopard who was mid hunt, stalking an impala!

And that is all I'm going to write about our safari...I had written a nice, long blog entry and was just waiting for the internet to be fixed to post it, when, quite suddenly, my memory stick decided to spontaneously delete everything that was on it. bye bye music, bye bye blog entry!

Dead rats and bats...essential elements to any kitchen!

It's been a while since I've had the chance to update this site, so before writing about the amazing safari I just went on, I feel I ought to bring everyone up to speed with what has been hapening these past few weeks!

Two tuesdays ago (I believe it was Oct. 24) Andrew, Jen and I made our way to Usolonga, the remote village situated 70 km north west of Iringa. Our goal for the two day visit was to clean out the house, meet the local 'government', and introduce ourselves to the teachers and students at the local primary school where we'll be teaching basic health care and nutrition. It doesn't sound like much, and one wouldn't think that it would take two days to accomplish such seemingly simple tasks, however, this being Africa, we have come to expect delays! We started cleaning as soon as we arrived and worked diligently for a few hours. Everything was covered in a thick layer of cement dust and bat droppings, not to mention spider webs and spiders. The house hasn't been lived in for a few months and has recently undergone minor construction; we now have a drop ceiling (which will cool the place down considerably as well as deter the bats from taking up permant residence) and the outside brick has been plastered with cement (to prevent the mud bricks from crumbling!) Needless to say, the place needed to be attacked with cleaning supplies and a broom! The most interesting room to clean was the storage room, where our food and kitchen supplies will be kept. The above picture was taken AFTER we'd been cleaning it for a good hour! I have yet been able to take an "after" picture, as it will require another few hours of scrubbing before reaching our standard of cleanliness! Among the more exciting things we came across, besides the ant infested food and dead rats and bats, were live bats. Andrew and Jen took turns killing, then disposing of the live ones, while I watched and provided moral support!

As we were making our way into the centre of the village later that day, we were greeted by many children, who, for the most part seemed very excited to see us! (one little boy started to cry as soon as he saw us and ran away as fast as he could, he was about three or four years old -I guess we scared him...) One of the cutest things was two small children (about three years old) who ran over to see us and to "shikamoo" us, and the one little boy reached up for my hand and kissed it! (to "shikamoo" someone involves greeting an elder by saying "shikamoo" -a term of respect which literally means 'to bow and touch someone's feet'; in the village, the children "shikamoo" those older than them by reaching up and touching their head). So not only does a trip to the village entail a lot of waving and smiling, there's also a lot of bending involved!

We finally got to meet the local 'director' of the village (on our second attempt) and made our introductions. Our next stop was the primary school, where we were greeted by a mob of 50+ students, who quickly formed a large animated circle around us. . .I have a feeling that teaching there will be quite the experience! We met one of the teachers and discussed starting dates; we'll be sitting in on a few classes this month in order to get a feel for the teaching environment and methods, and will hopefully start teaching by the end of November!

We left the village late Thursday afternoon and had a pretty uneventfull trip back to Iringa (no goats or motorcycles to pick up along the way!) Although we only spend one night there, we were happy to get back to Iringa, where the temperature is much more bearable and we had access to a nice shower and 'proper' washroom facilities! (Not that I'm complaining about the facilities that are available in the village! I'm thankfull for the small room with a drain that will serve as our 'bath in a bucket' "shower" and our squat toilet!)

Cooking lesson with Betty

Last Friday, instead of our regular language class, Betty taught us how to cook, Tanzanian style! Everything was prepared and cooked in true tanzanian fashion -headpieces and all! The kangas which we are sporting, are used for many different things; it is their main dress, headpiece, scarf, shawl, towel, baby carrier, and apron! A very multi-purpose piece of fabric!

Our day started off with a trip to Mama Kiri's (a lovely Tanzanian women who is a friend of the Wingfields -she's also taught me how to bake bread over a charcoal stove!) Our mission was to fetch a chicken and bring it with us to Betty's. Thankfully, Andrew was able to drive us that morning -I couldn't really picture us three *wazungus walking across town with a live chicken in tow! (*wazungu is the swahili word for "white people"...ie. any foreigners) Joe named our chicken Dorothy, and did a great job of holding her down in the backseat of the car!

Before our cooking session began, we were all outfitted with kangas! The first thing Betty taught us how to make was chapaties. There's a lot of rolling and oil involved -but the end result is well worth the effort! We also made homemade chai, coconut rice, pilau, a pea medley cooked in coconut milk, a beef dish, deep fried chicken (sorry Dorothy!), steamed spinach and tomato, plantain and ugali! It took seven hours in total, preparing everything by hand -literally, and cooking everything over little charcoal stoves. I had underestimated the time and energy that goes into making a meal here! I can't imagine doing that everyday! (Although it is rare that one would prepare such a feast daily!)

We called it a day around four o'clock and went home to rest for a few hours before heading back out for yet another meal...this time at the Bishop's house! Although we were pretty tired (and very full) from cooking, dinning with the Bishop and his wife was a lot of fun! The Bishop, who is in charge of the Diocese of Ruaha here in Iringa, is also the arch-bishop of Tanzania -he's a VERY busy man! He's also one of the friendliess, most laid back person I've met here! We had a very nice evening and hopefully we'll be able to visit with him some more while we are here.

All in all, friday was a very eventfull day - one with many highlights that will be remembered for a long time!

It's been a month!

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for a whole month already! There have been many exciting things keeping us busy in addition to learning Kiswahili (which is coming along quite nicely, just not as quickly as we’d like!) Two weekends ago we had the pleasure of attending our first Tanzanian wedding…what an experience! I’ve posted the pictures and tried to give an explanation for each of them! There were a variety of bright colors, loud music and a lot of dancing! It was also our first time eating a traditional Tanzanian meal, Tanzanian style- with no utensils! Although I do have to admit that I cheated and accepted the fork that was later offered to me! Jen and Joe were troopers and enjoyed eating with their hands along with all the other guests! Last week we were fortunate enough to tag along with some fellow ex-pats and visited one of the orphanages just outside of Iringa. We had a quick tour of the grounds and got to meet and chat with the main caretaker and some of the children – a few of us got lucky and were able to join in on a short soccer match! Although these kids have come from very dire circumstances, you would never know it based on their huge smiles! It’s encouraging to see a well-run facility that is providing these kids with the opportunity for success!

I’m currently in the process of learning how to drive –Tanzanian style! (i.e. on the opposite side of the road and somewhat aggressively!) I’ve been out driving a few times now, and so far haven’t killed anyone! It’s not as bad as I first thought it would be, I guess one is able to slowly become accustomed to the craziness that is the driving here! Speaking of ‘craziness’, we’ve had a few ‘exciting’ encounters with Betty’s (our language teacher) next-door neighbor! We’ve been told that she is bi-polar and usually makes her rounds to every house on her street demanding them to pay rent –even though she doesn’t own any of houses! We’ve also been informed about a few other interesting things she likes to do, however we were not warned about her tendency to throw rocks at our little school hut! We have been a target a few times in the past few weeks! Luckily she’s only managed to hit the outside of the hut, so I don’t think we’re in any real danger –it just provides an interesting twist to language learning! We finish class Monday (October 22) and then Jen and I will be heading out to the village on Wednesday for a few days to get better acquainted with the dispensary and those we’ll be working with. After we’ve settled in and become more familiar with village life, we’ll gradually work our way up to staying a full two weeks in a row. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be going for a few days at a time only –we’ve been told that this gradual introduction to village life has proven to be the best way to adapt successfully! I’m sure I’ll have many stories in the near future about my integration into village life! I’ve been hearing about people’s experiences and I’m excited to see for myself!