I am not particularly squeamish. I really don’t mind the variety of spiders and bugs that live in Canada. In fact, I’m usually the one nominated to kill or remove whatever insect is being a nuisance at home, but the spider we killed last night literally made me scream. Well, actually all three of us scream. At least our newly honed three-step approach to killing the spider (which by the way was found in my closet which is even more horrifying!) worked well. Here’s how it goes:
1) Flora sprays with the “Doom” which paralyzes said spider
2) Kelly uses the broom to control its movement
3) I swoop in with shoe for the deadly blow…or blows.
As much as I hate them, I almost wish we encounter one more so I can take a photo and share how gruesome and BIG they truly are with you folks at home.
In other news, most things to do with the house have been settled and it truly feels like home now. Work is also going well and I am travelling this coming Sunday to a rural community to observe a microfinance institution (MFI) in the field, learn more about how they operate and start to do some ground work for collecting case studies on the impacts of HIV/AIDS on rural MFI clients. I have also been meeting with AIDS Support Organizations here in Dar to learn more about the work they are doing and share information about the work of MEDA. Out of this sharing we are hoping that opportunities to work together in the future emerge.
On a personal level it’s a bit of a struggle to balance the great aspects of living here and the not so great aspects of living here and how those relate to each other. How do I reconcile children on the street asking for food and meeting a man on the road with a horrific wound on his leg who doesn’t have the money for medical treatment, with enjoying a lovely dinner out with friends or a weekend at the beach (the cost of which could treat the man AND feed the child). I suppose we face the same questions at home but in a much less literal sense then we do here.
In the end, we gave food to the child and money to the man and through our work we try and contribute to sustainable solutions to poverty to prevent people from having to beg. I know we face similar dilemmas in Canada, but it’s not the same. They may be flawed or under-funded but social safety nets DO exist.
Anyhow, these are some of the things I am thinking about during my time here. I will try and post some more photos this weekend and write again when I am back from my travels to Mpwapwa – bus trips here are always an experience in themselves so I am sure I will have lots to share upon my return!
Thursday, September 28, 2006
The Beach
We finally made it to the beach this past weekend! The Indian Ocean is just as spectacular as it was the last time I left it and my housemates and I treated ourselves to a “weekend away” (technically we were still in Dar) at Kipeppeo Beach. After fending off marriage proposals from our taxi driver and a creepy dala dala rider who locals assured us was a thief, arriving at Kipeppeo on Saturday afternoon turned into a relaxing weekend of sand and surf. The best part of sleeping overnight in a beach banda was listening to the ocean as we drifted to sleep. And there is nothing better than waking up and taking a dip – so refreshing!
Monday, September 18, 2006
At Home with the Ants
Well, we moved into our new house on Saturday and what a treat to be able to unpack and feel a bit more settled! In some ways this house is actually the nicest place I have ever lived - somehow I ended up with the master bedroom complete with a walk-in closet and ensuite bathroom - talk about luxurious!!
On the other hand, we have no living room furniture, no working stove, no permanent water solution (we had water trucked in our first night) and lots of ants, HUGE spiders and lizards!
As for the ants, I think its all about keeping them at bay and not actually getting rid of them - they are quite industrious - I will give them that, but I can't say I enjoyed waking up to HUNDREDS in my bed the first night! Turns out my mosquito net (which I had draped to the floor) was in their path from the window to wherever they were headed and I had indirectly added my bed as their new destination - lesson learned, always tuck in your mosquito net to your mattress!
Having a permanent place to live has allowed me to focus more on my work here at MEDA and this week I am finishing up some research on Aids Support Organizations (ASO's) working in Tanzania. This week I am hoping to set up some meetings with folks based in Dar to learn more about the specific work they are doing. At the same time I am reading Stephen Lewis's book "Race Against Time", which is heartbreaking at times and brings such context and urgency to the work we are doing here(Stephen Lewis was head of the UN Envoy on AIDS in Africa). In the lecture I read last night he spoke of a group of Grandmothers he visited who were caring for their orphaned grandchildren. One woman he spoke to had lost all 5 of her children to HIV/AIDS and all of her grandchildren in her care were HIV positive. Its hard to imagine surviving through that kind of loss over and over again.
So really, ants are not that big of a deal. I look forward to my work ahead...
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Friends & Houses
It’s hard to believe that a year ago I was leaving Tanzania not sure when I would be returning. After three months working as a volunteer here in Dar es Salaam I had forged many friendships and did not feel ready to return home. Now, exactly a year later I am back working as an intern at MEDA – what a wonderful privilege to have returned!
It’s been just over a week since I arrived with two other interns from Canada after a long and tiring 20 hour flight from Toronto. Kindly, a friend I met last year picked us up at the airport and helped cram all of our oversized bags (we are here for six months after all!) into his car and drove us to another friend’s house who offered her place to us while she is away.
Our focus since arriving has been to achieve three objectives:
1) Buy cell phones (in Dar this is the only way to communicate!)
2) Locate our offices (addresses and street names are less common here in Dar and landmarks are more commonly used to describe a location).
3) Find a place to live!
Our first two objectives were achieved our first day here and we felt quite optimistic about the third…however over the course of the last week we have met a few challenges to say the least!
Invariably, when looking for a place to live you must go through an agent or a tout – and there seems to be some sort of network in which these agents operate – from fancy estate agents to a bunch of fellows who seem to hang out on a corner and share information about which houses are empty. Sometimes these folks work together and many times we have found ourselves in a car with one agent picking up another to direct us to the right house…this makes things a bit tricky when you get to the negotiating stage and there are 4 agents between you and the landlord all telling you a different price!!
This process has been frustrating because most often we are taken to places we can’t afford (I like to call this the “Mzungu effect”) or that are unfurnished or to houses that can only be rented for one year (we are here six months!).
Oh, and this is after waiting for an hour on a street corner to meet an agent who then has to deliver a tire before showing you the house and by this time it is late and you are tired and hungry (as we are also working now) and then you talk to the landlord’s brother’s friend who thinks the rent is X when in fact it turns out to be Y which is beyond your budget and you go home defeated and exhausted – can you sense our frustration?!
Anyhow, aside from the wild goose chase that has been our house hunt everything else has been going quite well. Aside from my computer crashing on my second day at the office, work has been great so far and the folks at the MEDA office warm and welcoming.
I also appreciate what a difference speaking the little Kiswahili I know has made along the way in arranging meetings with agents and touts and my friends here have been truly amazing doing all they can to help. In fact this past week has made me appreciate how important friends are and what a difference they make in our lives and how important a home is in whatever form it takes. This is true for my fellow interns as well – being able to share in this house hunting experience and laugh over it the next day over a glass of wine has allowed us to get to know each other quite well, quite quickly!
In fact we are cautiously optimistic about a house we negotiated a price on yesterday. We are arranging a visit tonight to see that all the appliances work (there is power rationing here in Dar so all power is cut from 7 am to 7 pm 5 days a week) and then we plan to sign our contract tomorrow if all goes well. I shall keep you posted….
It’s been just over a week since I arrived with two other interns from Canada after a long and tiring 20 hour flight from Toronto. Kindly, a friend I met last year picked us up at the airport and helped cram all of our oversized bags (we are here for six months after all!) into his car and drove us to another friend’s house who offered her place to us while she is away.
Our focus since arriving has been to achieve three objectives:
1) Buy cell phones (in Dar this is the only way to communicate!)
2) Locate our offices (addresses and street names are less common here in Dar and landmarks are more commonly used to describe a location).
3) Find a place to live!
Our first two objectives were achieved our first day here and we felt quite optimistic about the third…however over the course of the last week we have met a few challenges to say the least!
Invariably, when looking for a place to live you must go through an agent or a tout – and there seems to be some sort of network in which these agents operate – from fancy estate agents to a bunch of fellows who seem to hang out on a corner and share information about which houses are empty. Sometimes these folks work together and many times we have found ourselves in a car with one agent picking up another to direct us to the right house…this makes things a bit tricky when you get to the negotiating stage and there are 4 agents between you and the landlord all telling you a different price!!
This process has been frustrating because most often we are taken to places we can’t afford (I like to call this the “Mzungu effect”) or that are unfurnished or to houses that can only be rented for one year (we are here six months!).
Oh, and this is after waiting for an hour on a street corner to meet an agent who then has to deliver a tire before showing you the house and by this time it is late and you are tired and hungry (as we are also working now) and then you talk to the landlord’s brother’s friend who thinks the rent is X when in fact it turns out to be Y which is beyond your budget and you go home defeated and exhausted – can you sense our frustration?!
Anyhow, aside from the wild goose chase that has been our house hunt everything else has been going quite well. Aside from my computer crashing on my second day at the office, work has been great so far and the folks at the MEDA office warm and welcoming.
I also appreciate what a difference speaking the little Kiswahili I know has made along the way in arranging meetings with agents and touts and my friends here have been truly amazing doing all they can to help. In fact this past week has made me appreciate how important friends are and what a difference they make in our lives and how important a home is in whatever form it takes. This is true for my fellow interns as well – being able to share in this house hunting experience and laugh over it the next day over a glass of wine has allowed us to get to know each other quite well, quite quickly!
In fact we are cautiously optimistic about a house we negotiated a price on yesterday. We are arranging a visit tonight to see that all the appliances work (there is power rationing here in Dar so all power is cut from 7 am to 7 pm 5 days a week) and then we plan to sign our contract tomorrow if all goes well. I shall keep you posted….
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