Back to Business!

Now that one of my blog-fans has emailed to say I'm sounding too much like a tourist and had better get back to work (thanks a bunch, Quinn!!) I think it's high time I wrote about what I'm up to here at LOOCIP these days.

First of all, I've been working up operational budgets for the organization and several of our individual projects. It's amazing how much optimism there is going forward when money is so incredibly scarce.

One of the programs I'm hoping will take off is called LECHE -- Longido Early Childhood Education. A wonderful Maasai woman named Sarah has started this program in the past few months. She's a retired schoolteacher and a big supporter of the Montessori method. Her dream is to establish Montessori pre-schools in small rural villages throughout the district, giving 2 to 6 year olds a real leg-up before they head off to the Primary School system. Because the mainstream schools here are primarily of the rote-learning variety (i.e. keep quiet, sit still and write down everything you are told so you can repeat it at exam time) this possibility to introduce creative thinking to young children is really exciting. The rural Maasai children will also become exposed to concepts that may otherwise be foreign to them on arrival at the primary boarding schools such as Kiswahili (the official school language). This should improve their confidence at Primary School as well as their chance of success and interest in continuing their education.

We were given a tour of the two currently-existing school sites last week--one housed in a LOOCIP-owned building in our village, the other about 6 kms away in the sub-village of Oltepesi. The Longido classroom had us snapping pictures like crazy -- 25 or 30 little tykes, ever so cute and busy sitting on their floor mats working with Montessori activities such as puzzles and stringing brightly coloured bottle caps. The Oltepesi school is the one that really captured our hearts though...as of now, the "school" consists of an area under a large shade tree. Because there's no money yet to go forward with setting up a proper Montessori classroom, activities are limited...the children were delighted to entertain us with the songs they've been learning, and to show us how they are learning to write numbers in the sand with sticks. To watch these eager little faces, so excited about coming to school, and yet with absolutely no facilities or supplies...it's hard to see without wanting to help out. We're putting together an information package and hoping to drum up some support from Canadian donors and schools. The project needs surprisingly little...$15,000 Cdn will enable Sarah to go forward with having a building constructed on land which the community has donated in Oltepesi (including living quarters for a teacher, a latrine and a small kitchen area) and will cover the teacher salaries and operational costs for both sites for a full year. If we can help to make that happen, next step is to assist Sarah to go forward with her bigger dream -- expanding to create a network of these pre-schools throughout the District.

Photos below: First, a little charmer at the Longido Montessori Pre-School....



The Oltepesi 'classroom'...















...and one of the Oltepesi students...

Last week also saw me repeating one of my favorite activities from my last visit...giving condom demonstrations and information to a group of women who were attending a training session which Corey was running at LOOCIP. Always makes for an interesting time!!

And, with time marching on, I'm still hoping to get a new project off the ground in Longido. My hope is that we can establish a counselling centre and short-term emergency shelter for unwed pregnant Maasai girls from area schools. I continue to meet with girls who are willing to share stories about the problem as well as other members of the community -- all of whom so far are 100% supportive of the idea, and eager to see it get started. There is such a lack of support for girls who find themselves pregnant. Government policy does not permit them to continue at school, from the moment pregnancy is confirmed. It seems there are virtually no services providing counselling or advice and most importantly, no one working to help bring families on board to support their daughters through the pregnancy but also allow them to return to school later. For the most part, girls who leave school to go home and have their babies are forced into marriage and will not have another opportunity to return to school. The stories I'm hearing are heartbreaking...young girls committing suicide or having high-risk illegal abortions rather than having to return home and give up on their dreams of going forward with an education. What I hope to see, is a facility that will offer caring, non-judgemental counsel and support in a broad range of areas--medical, legal, nutritional and educational, as well as offering a safe place where the girls can stay on a short-term basis.

So yes...perhaps I AM being just a bit more of a tourist this time around...but there is some serious work going on too!

Rainy Day in Arusha

Who'd have thought it could rain so long & so hard in Tanzania. I fell asleep to a huge thunderstorm last night (friends will know that's a GOOD thing in my view) and awoke to a continuing downpour. Heading back to Longido this afternoon after a relatively quick city-visit.

Sorry the postings are rather sparse. Perhaps much of this is becoming second-nature to me now, and as a result I may forget that even the everyday bits could be interesting to folks back home. I will try to find a free evening back in the village to write some updates.

Meantime, I'm happy and well, and making a good beginning at what I hope to help establish as a new community project for Longido District...I'm consulting with all sorts of folks about the possibility of opening a counselling and Emergency Shelter centre for unwed pregnant "girl mothers". The need is huge...the available services seem to be minimal. Hopefully we'll be able to go forward with this and truly make a difference in a number of lives. More info to come as (hopefully) things become more concrete.

By the way, I've just enabled email via my cell phone and am assuming it will work in the village as well as it does here! So please, keep those warm and wonderful emails from home heading to my joallgo@gmail.com account. They always brighten my day! My replies will be short -- nothing like trying to type on a phone keypad!?!?

Jotu

Not Quite the Easter Bunny!!

Chalk up another new experience...waking from a pup tent in Arusha National Park (where my friend and colleague Corey & I were the only campers in the entire place) to the sight of the Easter warthog and her two young ones contentedly grazing a stone's throw from our camp. She initially inspired thoughts of bacon for breakfast, but we let that pass and settled for watching the wee ones tussle about in mock fights between munchings.

We spent 24 hours in the park, mostly puttering along nasty roads through the rainforest, up the slopes of the mountain and along the lip of a crater. Arusha Park is relatively little-visited compared to the far more famous (and expensive) National Parks in Tanzania. Supposedly it offers limited opportunity for wildlife sightings and such. However, we saw zebra, buffalo, various gazelle-like critters, colobus and blue monkeys, baboons, some great birds and brilliant butterflies. And, after spotting piles of coconut-sized elephant poo every few meters along the road to a viewing spot at about 2000 feet, we were thrilled to see a small herd of forest elephants who were happy to pose for a photo shoot. Only thing we'd hoped to catch of a glimpse of, and didn't, was a leopard. Oh well, got to save something for another day!

Jotu! Jotu! The Cow, She Eat Your Pants!!

Greetings from Longido! I came back to the village on March 26th after taking a few days of R&R in Arusha, to recover from the 48 hour journey and to try to make progress in the fight against a nasty cold I'd brought along from Canada.

It's good to be back. Quite amazing how quickly I've slipped back into village life, and how incredibly wonderful it is to meet up with so many friends again. I got off to a great start with a road trip to Engaranaibor, have (for the first time) been spat on by an old man -- a blessing that wasn't extended during my first stay, and have begun to take more matters of daily living, such as cooking real meals from scratch, into my own hands.

So, this morning began with a sleepy-eyed walk to the neighbor's house to pick up 2 cups of milk, fresh from the source and still warm and frothy. Then home to pasteurize it, strain it, cool it, boil water, make coffee and (finally) a great morning latte! With my instant oatmeal plus the addition of a new find from the village market -- pears! -- I was able to put together something that passed for a reasonable breakfast.

I learned a critical laundry lesson today -- never hang your laundry on a line that's stretched over grass! After going through the joys of handwashing my clothes in my little tub, and rounding up some pegs for hanging it out, I was interrupted by cries of "Jotu! Jotu! The cow she eat your pants!!" My young neighbor appeared at my door bearing a pair of trousers which while filthy, didn't seem to have suffered too badly from the cow's little taste-test. Of course, while we were inspecting the pants and sending them back in the direction of my bathroom for rewashing, it was discovered that the cow had moved on to try a once-white T-shirt. Clearly that didn't meet her standards either and was trampled to the ground full of mucky hoof prints. The cow was hustled away by one of the nearby boys, my remaining laundry was relocated to another clothesline (this one over sand), and I chalked up another lesson learned.

Today, April 4th, I'm actually back in Arusha (hence the posting after a long delay). I'll be in town for about a week, as this is the Easter Break for many. Hope to go camping in Arusha National Park, and to have the chance to catch up with friends here in town. Will keep you posted!

Jotu