Mikumi with Mom

Just a quick note to say that I had a lovely visit with my mother when she was here earlier this month…highlights include a rainy but wonderful visit to Zanzibar (aside from the choppy ferry ride home in which I was hugging the seat in front of me in fear and my mom was sick to her stomach along with the rest of the passengers), an incredible safari in Mikumi National Park, my mom finally meeting my Swahili family, seeing where I have worked and lived and meeting some of my new but dear friends here.

At times I think it may have been sensory overload and she certainly found it hot and humid (while we who live here have been rejoicing with this cooler, rainy weather).

The visit also made me think about how I will share my life with folks who haven’t been to visit once I return…so inspired by my mother who had no shame in taking hundreds of pictures I am going to try and start capturing pieces of my life here through photos. Not the easiest thing for me to do because I have always struggled with wanting photos for after I have left somewhere but not wanting to remove myself from being in the moment while I AM somewhere. Especially since what I love most about Tanzania is the people and my everyday encounters. But once you pull out a camera the dynamics instantly change and I still haven’t figured out how to negotiate those situations in a way that everyone feels good about in the end.

It will be a new challenge and a bit of an experiment – we’ll see how it goes…

In the meantime I have posted below some of the best shots from our Mikumi trip. Luckily the animals really don’t care about having their photos taken…in fact I am convinced that the baboons actually ham it up for the camera!

Out to the Field

May is flying by! Since I last wrote I took a quick trip to Mombassa, Kenya (long story) where I was lucky enough to be hosted by yet another MEDA affiliate. This time Ben was able to hook me up with a great place to stay, fun people to hang out with and an all round lovely one night away. Wish I could have stayed longer but Sunday morning I was back in Dar, up bright and early and on my way to Dodoma!

This trip out into the field was an incredible learning experience. The trip had a number of purposes but my role was to talk to teachers and students and assess how well the science modules on trachoma, nutrition and hygiene that HKI developed with the Ministry of Education have been integrated into the curriculum. We chose to visit Dodoma as 80 teachers from 20 schools in this district were trained on these new modules.

The first few schools we visited were impressive. Well supported by HKI they had access to water and hand/face washing stations set up in front of the classrooms. An ingenious invention, the jerry cans are filled with water with a hole near the top. A rope attached to a stick on the ground allows a child to step on the stick and get enough water to wash his/her face without wasting the precious resource.

Students also performed a skit on Trachoma for us and later, with the help of the HKI optometrist, students were screened for eye glasses. Amazingly one of the little girls was completely blind in one eye – and her teachers had no idea. It was an incredible process to watch! After the children are assessed they are provided with free eye glasses where appropriate or referred to additional testing at the nearest hospital.

The school below is supported by the World Food Programme which provides breakfast and lunch to the school children. The woman in the photo is Mama Nelly, the District School Coordinator who accompanied us out to the schools.

However over the following days we visited many schools much farther down dirt roads and hours away from Dodoma town where teachers and students struggle with no access to water and unusable latrines. Many students walk up to 5 km to school which is too far to walk home for lunch (if there is lunch to be had) and who go all day without eating or drinking. Children in these more rural areas appear so much smaller for their age due to poor nutrition and stunting. Often dirty and wearing raggedy school uniforms these children did not look well.

How can a country develop when its future are stunted from malnutrition? How can students learn when they are going to school hungry? Having a basic need met like access to water (even a water tank to collect rain water would be a start) could go so far and yet this primal human need is still a struggle for so many people around the world. And as I write this its day two of torrential down pours in Dar es Salaam…

Time Flies

Is it really May already? Friends from home have started to talk about patios and warmer weather and flip flops…its hard to believe that two seasons have passed in Canada while its been hot, hotter and now hot and wet here. I’m not sure I realized how the seasons act as such important markers of time for me and perhaps that’s why my sense of how long I have been away is a bit skewed at times.

Since I last wrote there have been lots of big changes. I said goodbye to Flora (my housemate) and moved to my new place in Kinondoni. My “cabana” as my mom likes to call it was originally designed as servants’ quarters. The building is two floors with my sitting room on the main floor and then my bedroom and bathroom upstairs. It’s a bit odd as I have to take the stairs outside to get one from the other but it works and I feel comfortable and safe here. The really lovely main house I use to cook and use the internet (yes internet at home!!) and hang out with Neil and Matt my two new Irish housemates. I am really enjoying being closer to town and the market and being able to walk to work along the ocean each day.

After moving into my new place I enjoyed a week off between my contract ending at MEDA and starting at HKI. So I headed off to Zanzibar to spend a few days in Stonetown wandering (I was lost almost the entire week), exploring prison island, snorkeling and squeezing in some Swahili lessons. It was a really relaxing week away. I stayed at my friend’s house and to my surprise she had cable!! It was such a treat and I caught the Amazing Race episode where they travel through Dar and Zanzibar – quite surreal to be watching the race through Stonetown while in the heart of Stonetown!

Once back in Dar I started my new job which has been going really well. I have been learning lots lately about vitamin A supplementation and deworming for children and new mothers and have been busy developing job aids for health workers to promote and support theses efforts. HKI has helped Tanzania achieve over 90% coverage in the area of supplementation which has quite significantly lowered the child mortality rate.

I was also able to attend a conference organized by the WHO on maternal, newborn and child health. I learned quite a bit about the challenges facing women and children in many parts of the world to access quality health care for themselves and their babies. A short film was shown at the opening of the conference that highlighted the challenges facing women in Tanzania. A woman told her story of trying to get to a hospital on the back of a bike and having to stop and labour by the side of the road in the dark alone. Two health workers described how they have 35 – 60 births at their clinic a day and only two staff. Another health worker described how they write out a list of supplies for women to bring with them (like rubber gloves) when they come to give birth as they don’t have their own adequate stock. Giving birth for many women in Africa is a dangerous and scary time and women talked about how they say goodbye to their children when heading to the clinic in case they do not return. The challenges people face in rural Tanzania sometimes feel never ending.

Also as part of my work I was able to travel to Lindi (Southern coastal Tanzania) to help out with a sensitization workshop for local government and district health officials on Essential Nutrition Actions that we will be training health workers on next month. Following protocol is very important in Tanzania and obtaining the support of local officials is essential for any work. Yet sometimes the chain of command also feels never ending. Fortunately HKI has quite a good relationship with the folks in Lindi and the work was fully supported. It was also my first visit to a district clinic and the first morning we arrived at the hospital there were almost 100 women waiting with their babies. The baba, mama and watoto clinic is one of the places that will be rolling out the ENA program and using the job aids I am developing and hopefully helping those babies to grow into strong and healthy children.

I have included some photos of Lindi above and below. Take note of the bustling airport and breezy departure lounge!

Other than being busy with work, not much else is new to report. I took a trip over Easter to Lushoto, which is lush and green and much cooler than Dar. There were about ten of us that drove up and we stayed in a lovely place nestled in the hills where they made their own cheese (my personal version of heaven). We swam under a waterfall, had bizarre experiences at local restaurants and mostly lazed around with wine enjoying not sweating. It was a fun trip, although the highlight for me was running the first morning with a trail of small children screaming (happily and not in terror for once) alongside me.

So two more months and I am home. What a crazy trip life can be. Luckily I don’t have to wait that long to see my mom – she is arriving next week and I cannot wait!! I’m sure we will have lots of adventures to report on the next time I write. I am also planning to do some more traveling out to some schools with HKI in the coming month that will require long bus rides – those are also inevitably an adventure as well! Hope all is well and you are enjoying you own adventures (small or big) wherever this may find you. I thought I should include a photo of me in case you are starting to forget what I look like! This was taken at the end of March when we threw a goodbye party for Flora before we moved out of our house. It was tons of fun and everyone was drenched in sweat from dancing all night. I am terrible at taking photos so there are lots of better pics floating around out there (especially on facebook) but unfortunately I don’t have copies!