Ups and Downs

The past few days have been such a roller coaster ride. I've (indirectly, don't panic) been robbed of all the cash I had left for this month's projects and expenses, I've had a motorcycle ride--deliciously helmetless (low speeds, again, don't panic) through the stunningly gorgeous nearby countryside, I've pigged out on Indian food in the city, watched old movies on HBO India, been inspired to think big and try selling CNN Africa on the idea of coming up here to cover some of our projects. I've had some good laughs...then almost cried...and waffled between "I want to go home...NOW" and "I never want to leave this place", more times than I would have imagined possible. I've marvelled at a world where technology lets me run to an ATM to restore my lost funds...and then marvelled even more at the fact that I am so incredibly fortunate to have that option! I've travelled to Arusha in the saddest looking Peugeot of the fleet...cracked windshield, masking tape over the blade-less wiper arm that sprang to life at will several times through the trip, indescribable engine noises at startup, and nine of us sitting in the seven available passenger seats...some more calmed than others by the windshield stickers which declare the car to be "Protected by the Blood of Jesus". I'm sitting at my 'dining room' table, with a cool breeze blowing through the house (everyone keeps telling me how COLD it is, though I'm ever so comfortable in just my jeans and t-shirt), listening to the chorus of bird songs that is so ever-present I rarely even notice any more. Somewhere a few houses down, Arnold is having a good giggle about something, and it's tempting to stop and go out and get my afternoon hugs from the little guy.

And, since this is Africa, and time spent here in the village is the best lesson anyone ever could have in 'living in the moment', I'm now shutting off the computer and heading outside to do precisely that!!

Of compost, rodents and the deep chill

Back in Longido after a very quick visit to the city (I needed to get some chocolate into me). I was teaching a class on business planning Saturday here at LOOCIP so I needed to come back to the village early in the morning. The class was fun as always. It's tough having to teach via a translator, but my co-teacher and I have pretty much got that down to a science and we've even got a few comic moments built into our spiel now. The students love it when I tell them stories about starting a business in Canada, or about how I'm really bad at negotiating prices and on arrival here was being charged about 4 times the going rate for everything from tomatoes to clothing. At the end of the class, there was the customary formal closing of the session by the class leader. I was really touched when this fellow stood up and said something loosely along the lines of "thank you teacher and please don't leave us until we have learned to do this work well".

Today's been a quiet day, but as always one with a few surprises.

This morning Mama Farrajah's kids came by to clean the house...I always feel lazy when I ask for help with the housework, but honestly I know that I couldn't possible manage to bend over and 'mop' the floors with a rag for more than a couple of minutes. So, the whole crew arrived to get the job done. Loveness wondered about using the bucket on my back stoop for a wash bucket. However, I knew I'd thrown a few bits of overripe fruit into it yesterday...the beginnings of a compost bucket (something I'm trying to encourage all the women of the compound to start doing). So, I tried explaining that to her, and was somewhat bewildered by the look I was getting...one of those 'are you nuts, lady??' looks. Anyhow, she set the bucket down and went off to find a more suitable one. A few minutes later, Michael was peering into the bucket and he too was getting my brief lesson in the values of composting. He kept staring hard into the bucket and was giving me the look as well. Round about that time, I happened to walk over and look into this controversial bucket...only to see a sadly drenched baby rat lying on top of my rotting bananas (it rained last night). I thought it was, literally, a drowned rat...but just then I saw some definite twitching going on.

Now, these kids are getting used to my sensibilities when it comes to the treatment of animals, so I guess they weren't too surprised when I asked Michael to dump out this soaked little rat onto the ground so it could go and find its mama. Poor little thing was so bedraggled, but managed to get on its feet and scoot off into the grass. So, maybe I've been here too long. I remarked to someone the other day that I had been sitting out on the stoop, watching the rats go back and forth from the grassy area to my garbage pit, and thinking how darned cute they were. They're not much like the urban rats back in Canada...the adults are only about the size of the white lab-type rats that Drew used to keep as pets and train to do tricks. And, their faces are more like hamsters or gerbils...without that ratty snout and beady eyes thing going on!

Much of the rest of my day was spent trying to keep warm. It's been raining off and on for the past few days and the temperature has really dropped suddenly...probably only about 65F today. Last night I slept comfortably under two blankets...something I couldn't imagine doing most nights. Apparently it may get even cooler over the coming weeks as we get into the African winter. And here I am, one fleece sweater to my name. Guess I'll need to hit the used clothing stores in Arusha next time I go to town. Who knew???

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

Back to Africa -- Today!!!

After the crazy six week flurry that was my visit home, I'm off to Montreal today to catch an evening flight to Amsterdam. Tomorrow night I'll be boarding a plane to Nairobi and Thursday I'll be making my way on to Arusha for a few days before returning to Longido.

Apologies are due to a number of folks I simply didn't have time to connect with while I was in Canada. I really had no idea how many loose ends I'd be busy tidying up nor how quickly the time would fly by. I think that when I come home again late in June, I'd best throw one big party and ensure I get to see everyone at once!!

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to my bulging return baggage full of medications, small toys for the kids, and computer training supplies. I can assure you that every bit of that will be appreciated at its destination.

I'm not sure what sort of schedule I'll be keeping this time around, but will do my best to keep the blog updated on a weekly basis. Those of you who were corresponding with me on the super-slow @habari.co.tz address should know that I may not be reestablishing that account this time around. However, news and greetings from home are always a treat at my gmail account when I get web access.

And now, once again....let the adventure begin!!

Jotu

Back in Ottawa -- for a while

Five days back and I'm still feeling a little lost and confused about being here. I've caught myself referring to Longido as "home" at least a half-dozen times, and have broken the news to friends and family that I'm hoping to get myself back to Africa before mid-March.

I'm enjoying my high-speed internet access and am happy to finally post a few more pictures for those of you who won't have the opportunity to see them first-hand.




This first one is my African dream house. It's actually a chapel, but I love the concept of the round house.














This is Arnold, taken back when he was still terrified of getting too close to me!













And this is the young man who was so delighted with seeing his photos full size on my laptop that we kept going back outside to take more shots! This was my attempt to capture him mid-jump.














On the right...the bride from the Boxing Day wedding, accompanied by one of my young housemates.










My debut as a Maasai dancer...













and more scenes from the wedding celebration.

Hours to home

Forgive my silent period...the past couple of weeks have been a wild ride and I couldn't really sort out what to say nor find much time to sit and write.

Here's a high point to tell you about -- I saw my first elephant, up close and personal. I was one of four people crammed into the front of a 2-seater Land Rover pickup truck, driving 60 km over horrible dirt roads to the village of Kitumbeine. TEMBO has 2 sponsored girls at secondary school there so we were off to pay their fees for the term. En route, we spotted a lone bull elephant near the roadside. Since I was travelling with 2 fearless Maasai men (as opposed to a tour service) we got way closer than good sense probably should have dictated. Afterward, I was assured that one of the men "knew elephant psychology" and was absolutely certain we were in no danger whatsoever. I'll never know, but sure got a lecture from some wazungus here in town, when they learned how close we'd been to the beast! Believe it or not, my camera battery chose that moment to die, so I have no proof of the proximity!

Almost as exciting, on the way back, with absolutely nothing but hot dry plain between Kitumbeine and Longido, we lost part of the axle from the Land Rover. Somehow, we managed to make it home -- by that time I'd decided the more comfortable option was to stand in the back of the pickup, holding the roll bar for stability. I've got a nasty sunburn as a result, but it truly was fun to be back there looking out at the surreal landscape with the wind in my hair. Tina was with me and I got her to join me in pretending we were flying. Of course back home this would be deemed unsafe these days (though I recall lots of drives in the back of a truck as a kid), but somehow in Africa it all works out.

So here I am, back in Arusha, with only a few hours before my flight to Amsterdam this evening. With an 8 hour layover there, I've got 27 or so hours of travel time to look forward to. Oh well, with luck I'll sleep my way across Africa tonight.

So many people to say goodbye to, even here in the city where I've spent relatively little time for the past few months. I've pretty much run out of money, so souvenir shopping was really limited. Just as well though, cuz no matter where I am on the planet, shopping is one of my least favorite activities. For now, I'll just finish up here, then head off for a last cool Bitter Lemon before my airport ride arrives.

Once I'm home, I'll post a lot of my photos for those of you who've been asking to see more.

Stay tuned for news about my plans for adventure #2, coming real soon.

Jotu

Sprinting to the Finish Line

It gets harder and harder to find time to write postings. With only about two weeks left before I leave Longido (probably January 31st), the list of things I really want to get done seems to be never-ending.

And just when it's time to leave...I'm getting signs of yet another step forward in my acceptance here. Little Arnold is finally happy to run to my arms for a hug. Today I saw (and contributed to the demise of) the biggest spider-like critter to have ever appeared here in our relatively bug-free guest house...yikes, I'll be tucking in the corners of my bed net tonight! My young housemates seem to have forgotten that I'm mzungu, and think nothing of offering to share a humble dinner of sorghum porridge (which I'm actually quite okay with accepting, so long as it's not an every day thing!). I continue in my role of problem-solver, but as the weeks go by the problems become far more personal and at times far more serious. There are still a lot of shared laughs...but now we've grown into occasional shared tears as well. In short, I'm feeling very much like part of this huge family.

My TEMBO colleagues called the other night from Canada, asking what I wanted stocked in my fridge on my return. At the time I was so taken aback by just the thought of having a refrigerator, that I couldn't come up with much in the way of a list of contents for it. But a few hours later I found myself food-obsessed for the first time since arriving here (other than my craving for Indian food which I've satisfied twice now in Arusha). I'd actually been able to put all thoughts of missed food out of my mind since arriving here. Amazing to remember how much I love cheese, yogurt, whole grain bread, asparagus...the list goes on and on. Actually, the list DID go on and on when I got around to sending an emailed reply to the grocery provision offer.

So yes, it'll be great to come home for a while. To see my family, my friends...celebrate a little late Christmas with them...toss a log onto my fireplace...stare at the fridge in awe...remember how it feels to be cold...thrill to high-speed internet...all such things.

The $180 Bath

Okay, so I said I wouldn't do it. But you know, after 2 months and a long recent stretch out in the village I really needed a chance to recharge and my bathtub craving was becoming obsessive. So, here I am in Arusha having spent 2 nights at the rather lavish (by my current standards anyhow) Impala Hotel (chosen because of the existence of tubs). I'm now well rested, and feeling cleaner than I have since November. Add in the great Indian and Chinese food served at the hotel and hey, this was a good Christmas present to me. I'm ready to head back to the village this afternoon and work like crazy for my final 3 weeks there....refreshed and relatively clearheaded.

Almost New Year's Eve - December 30th

This will be one of those meandering posts. It's been raining every day since the 27th...today the sun peeked through for the first time in days. Add a nasty cold to that (why, with all the medicines I packed, didn't I think I might need something potent for cold and sinus conditions), and yeah, I'm feeling a wee bit blue.

I guess it shows on my face. As I walked home from lunch in the village this afternoon, at least two people sympathized with me for being so tired. The real clue that my mental state may be a little on the obvious side, was when Maalai popped by to say hello, and I learned through Joseph's translation that he was asking me how I was doing with my loneliness problem. Yikes! In my best efforts at African-ness, I certainly have never told anyone that I was even a little bit lonely. On top of everything else my favorite askari is a mind-reader!

Mostly though, I'm just more than a little tired. Yesterday I taught a dozen people the basics of preparing business plans. I actually had quite a bit of notice that I was going to be leading this class...a whole week in fact...but of course Christmas and the Boxing Day adventure took priority over course planning, so I was less than well prepared to do this. Apparently though, the very fact that I'd pre-done a course outline was downright impressive, and as a result the man who was supposed to co-facilitate the session with me decided I was more than able to handle the full day solo! A quarter of the scheduled participants missed half the day because their vehicle had been stuck on the road from their village (probably the same crevass that caught us on the Maasai wedding trip, only with a few extra days of rain added to the problem!)

Teaching adults, here at LOOCIP, is a whole new experience. Essentially, anyone who has any information that might be considered useful to others, is a potential teacher...with or without benefit of any notion of how to actually teach. And, the most surprising people have the capacity to simply stand up, without any preparation, and teach a class for hours. Of course, I was determined to create an interesting day out of potentially dry material, especially once I discovered that most of my students had really limited reading or writing skills. Language, of course, was problematic, but the head trainer here at the centre did a valiant job of translating my efforts a sentence at a time, even doing his best to mimic my tone and delivery. We did have some fun...I tossed in a few little dramas, got the participants answering questions (and led wild applause each time a correct answer was given), and told as many personal stories as I was able to toss into the mix. I learned a fair bit about the ins and outs of some of their proposed microbusinesses -- buying and selling goats, making bricks, setting up a 'dry grocery' kiosk in a remote village. And the class learned a fair bit about me. I opted to teach them the principles by using a simulated business, and chose in true Canadian style, to establish an imaginary sort of Tim Hortons by the roadside here in Longido. Coffee (kahawa) and Mandazi (almost doughnuts) were our only products, and the name "Kahandazi" seemed to fit well (yes, I did check first to ensure it wasn't a swear word in Swahili). The class was a little taken aback by my enthusiasm for ensuring we set ourselves apart from other eateries by having a super-clean latrine, assuring my rather skeptical audience that this could have make-it-or-break-it consequences when it came to attracting the passing tourists. Mostly, it worked out well though I'm a little concerned that next time I come to Longido I may find a rash of coffee & doughnut shops have sprung up along the roadside. I wouldn't mind a bit if a whole lot of super-clean public latrines were to spring up along the same stretch.

Boxing Day Adventures, Maasai style!

Okay, so maybe I didn't find the best Boxing Day sale ever, on who-knows-what. Maybe I didn't manage to score my usual haul of bargain priced wrapping paper for next Christmas. And maybe I didn't get to eat seemingly endless leftover turkey and dressing. BUT....I did have a pretty interesting Boxing Day nevertheless.

Still full from all the Christmas meals, I was picked up late morning by a crew of wazungus from Arusha. The family of Cheri who had been my housemate here for some time, were all visiting for the holidays (some from Canada, some from Sri Lanka), and we'd all been invited to attend a traditional Maasai wedding celebration in the small village of Engarinaibor. I have no idea how far away it is...can only tell you that it takes an hour and a half to get there by jeep, on some incredibly bad roads.

We were warmly welcomed on arrival and introduced to the bride and groom. Everyone except our party was in full traditional Maasai dress...even Steven who is the Executive Director of LOOCIP and normally wears only Western clothing, was fully decked out in his Maasai finest--sword, stick and all. The groom's face was decorated with designs drawn in red ochre, and his hair was pulled into a top knot which had a very blond extension flowing from it...looked like some sort of animal tail. Overall, the effect was really pretty scary. The bride's face was partially covered by a special headdress. She was really tiny, and looked to be about 12 years old, but I was assured she was actually 18 (from a family of uncharacteristically small folks!) The actual wedding had taken place on Christmas Day. We were there to share in the celebration portion only.

First we were taken for a walk away from the house, where the men were cooking a slaughtered cow and some rice. We were offered cooked meat and bowls of rice to share. The meat arrived in our seating area, a little way apart from the main fire site, carried on a large stick. Steven's brother proceeded to carve off chunks and serve them up for us. Women are not typically invited to share in any of this. However, it seems that it's acceptable for any woman who is not wearing typical Maasai clothing, to take part (though perhaps the presence of three mzungu females accounted for us being seated away from the main group).

Next, we walked back to the house to watch the women dancing. Turned out 'watching' was not an option. Before I knew what I was getting in for, I accepted an offer to join the group. I was then given two large neckpieces to wear...one about the size of a pizza pan, the other a bit smaller, as these are critical to the dance moves. Essentially, if you get your shoulders going just right you can make your neck ornamentation bounce just so. I was placed in the centre of the group and was doing fine to that point, bouncing like I'd been born to it. And then, the jumping began. Now, most of you probably know that the Maasai are known for their jumping ability--from a standing start, they can make great vertical leaps. Silly me, I thought only the men jumped but was about to be proven wrong as again and again I was urged to join with another woman at the centre of our group, and leap like my life depended on it! One small problem arose though. As often happens, I think this group of gals mistook me for a much younger woman, and they really weren't open to accepting that I was quickly worn out by all of this. Oh well, it was a blast and I've got the pictures to prove it!

Next, a well deserved breather, accompanied by a cup of milk-chai and then we were off to watch the arrival of group after group of morani (Maasai warriors). They came in single file processions from all directions, and began a sort of dance competition that lasted for ages. Each group in turn formed a chanting and dancing circle and then they too got into jumping mode. What a sight! I have no idea how many people were ultimately in the main pasture field, but the crowd seemed huge. After a group had danced sufficiently, they slowly moved off and let another begin.

Still panting from my own dance experience, I decided to take a breather and go inside the house to download my photos of the day. I had a chance to show them (once again thankful for the longlife battery on my laptop) to a group of moranis who had gathered in the house. As always, everyone was thrilled to see the pictures on the 'big screen'.

Night was falling (the sun always sets just before 7 here, year round) so the wazungus were asked to join the men of the family at a bonfire a short way from the house. On arrival, after almost stepping in a warm goat carcass in my flipflops, we were seated on benches around the fire, elbow to elbow with the group of men. Goat meat was cooking on sticks over the open fire, and everyone wanted to tell and hear stories from the others. Unfortunately, we rarely had a translator available, so clearly something was lost there, but the spirit of it all was tremendous. I got some extra points by being the only mzungu who accepted the first meat offered--fresh roasted goat liver. Stephen had assured me that this was one of his own herd, and that his goats are faithfully dewormed every 3 months. I happen to be a fan of liver when it's properly cooked, and in recent years have stopped eating it mostly out of fears about the various hormones and such that we're told are given to our cattle back home. With this one being 100% organic, I was happy to partake. It was delicious, though I couldn't get the thought of an accompanying pan of fried onions out of my head!

After the rest of the meat was cooked and shared, it was time for us to pile back into the vehicle and make our way to a guesthouse in the nearby village. We were doing great until our vehicle slipped into a crevass in the muddy road, and left us hung up to the axle on one side. After a fair bit of fruitless pushing, our driver and Joseph (the only one of us who could speak the language) decided to leave the rest of us behind and try to get to the village on foot, find a rescue vehicle, and return to tow us free. So, that left 6 of us, with only one small flashlight, standing around by our vehicle under a sky threatening rain, with at least a 3 hour wait ahead of us. However, one of our members was Felix, ( the Ghanain who was also one of my earlier housemates) and he's not one to stand around not working on a problem. Felix managed to find the jack, rig things up, and get us in a position such that one quick push freed the vehicle. We piled in and drove to catch up with the others at the village. By the time we got there, the guesthouse had given up on our ever showing up, and had given away our rooms. So, not long before midnight we decided to pile back in the vehicle and make our way home. There had been some rain during the day and at times the roads were unbelievably slippery. Luckily our driver has had many years of experience driving in Africa, and got us through everything the road tried to throw at us. Round about 1:30 am, we got back to Longido, and I opened the guesthouse doors to the whole crew. We were all totally exhausted, and 'home' has never looked so good.

Guess the holiday sales will have to wait 'til next year.

Jotu

And so, this is Christmas

Christmas was ushered in during the wee hours by the first real thunderstorm I've experienced since coming to the village, and I awoke at 6am to the sound of an unrelenting steady rain. While I'd planned to go to mass at 7:00, a couple of cups of coffee and a warm bath later, I decided it would be foolhardy to go and get myself soaked given the state of my cold. I settled for some quiet meditation, alone with God on the back stoop, and hoped I wouldn't subsequently be declared to be a pagan by the community.

By 9am the rain had slowed to a drizzle so I popped over to Mara's little house in the compound to deliver his Christmas present. What a sight! While he had been away with us on the retreat in Arusha (a grand total of 4 days away), there had been a major termite invasion in his house. The place is now covered in many unbelievably large piles of termite-leavings (I have no idea how these critters work so fast...the mind boggles. I started to think about why my guesthouse isn't subject to similar infestations then thought better of pondering that too far. Here I am, Ms. Environmental Sensitivity and I'm probably living in a house that is drenched in some sort of nasty insecticide to keep the pests at bay...yikes! That would certainly account for some portion of my feeling not-quite-right healthwise.)

Then, I had a run of visitors. Mama Farajah came to the door as she was arriving for a late start at work. She gave me a wonderful Christmas card, complete with pop-up Nativity scene. We shared hugs and best wishes as she headed to the hostel to start a normal workday.

Next came Maali. I had given him a card and a 5,000 shilling note yesterday, with thanks for keeping me so safe and sound here. So, he popped in at the end of his night shift to wish me a Merry Christmas, offer many hugs and to thank me for the gazillionth time for my friendship and kindness. I think it's now official, although it was probably always true. My Maasai askari friend would probably step boldly between me and a lion if required, armed with nothing more than his stick and short spear.

And then, a phone call at 9:40 from Justinian, the acting Director of LOOCIP, hoping I was okay since I'd missed the 7:00am Mass which had just ended (hey, only 2.5 hours long). I assured him I was okay, hoping all the while that I wouldn't be judged too harshly for my no-show, and wished his family well.

Around 11am Joseph came by, having fought his battle with the termites, to give me a Christmas card and to share my coffee with 2 of his friends. Cremora (the Coffeemate available here) is quite the hit with everyone. Personally I prefer the boiled cow's milk I'm served in other people's homes but my consumption is too small to warrant buying a milk supply from the pastor next door, without access to refrigerated storage. One of Joseph's friends is a traditional Maasai moran (young warrior) and he was fascinated with seeing photos of Joseph on my laptop. I'm not sure if he had ever seen a photograph of himself or any of his friends. Thus began a photo session which gave us all a lot of laughs.

At noon, my first host of the day showed up to let us know it was time to come for Christmas lunch. We had a terrific meal, with roasted meat and potatoes and lots of other goodies. They had another pair of visitors there from the US and the husband, being originally from Montreal, was quite familiar with Ottawa and keen to share stories. Joseph & I slipped away shortly after 2pm and stopped to wish Nai a Merry Christmas at her home. Of course the first request was that I sit and join them for a meal, but I had to beg off from that one, with a promise to share food with her at New Years. We came back to the guest house, where I hoped to get in a few hours of digestion prior to our evening invitation to dinner. However, shortly after arriving, I was asked if I would come and meet with a group of seven young men who were visiting here, on a very short break from their school. Of course I agreed to go and chat with them, and on arrival discovered there was a meal laid out. Never one to offend, I put tiny bits of chicken wings and rice on my plate, loosened the waistband on my skirt a notch, and got into a great conversation with this group of fine young fellows about their aspirations on completion of their A level exams this February.

And here I'll digress a bit about how money is shared here in Africa. Remember that $10 I gave to Mama Farajah yesterday to help with Christmas expenses? Well, I can almost certainly imagine that much of that money went to providing today's square meal, and a tiny bit of celebration to be shared with her son Ivan's classmates, none of whom could get home for Christmas. This is the African way. Whatever you have, you share.

At 7:30pm, we headed out for our final Christmas celebratory meal of the day. What a surprise to arrive at this home, and find a small artificial Christmas tree, and strings of twinkling lights. Again, far too much food was offered (and consumed, since this Mama wasn't interested in taking no for an answer) and then we watched a Story of Jesus movie in badly-dubbed Kiswahili. The company was wonderful, and made for a terrific finale to the day. And then, home to bed, as Boxing Day promises an amazing adventure. I'm off to participate in a Maasai wedding celebration in the village of Engarenaibor...a potentially nasty road trip, but I'm sure a huge adventure is in store. Stay tuned.

Merry Christmas

Jotu.

and to all a good night...

Christmas Eve in Africa. It's 7:25pm and the generator, which normally growls into 'on' mode at 7pm has finally come on. I was hoping it hadn't been given the night off!

I've hung my Christmas garland brought along from Canada. I've got my new African Christmas dress sort of pressed for church in the morning. No iron, so I just dampened and pushed and poked everything into submission before drying. I used up a gazillion cell phone credits and called a lot of near & dear folks back home, to send holiday wishes from afar. What a wonderful time that was!! I've wrapped the one real present I'll deliver tomorrow to the family who invited me to share the evening meal, and written my little Christmas cards to others. I should probably have bought a goat for my host instead, but that's hard to pull off on Christmas Eve, and I'm not really into goat rustling at this hour. There's a lot of singing in the air tonight...possibly choirs practising for morning, perhaps just families breaking into song. Everyone is happy that it's Christmas, but there isn't a bit of commercialism attached here in the village. How refreshing!

Everyone I meet in the village (and myself included) is fighting a nasty cold. I'm told it was brought on by the change in the weather, only I'm not too sure what that change was. Hmmmm...not so windy these nights...for a while there a big wind picked up every night at 9ish and played its tricks with my tin roof. Yesterday we had a short heavy rain. Other than that, everything feels about the same to me (hot, basically), so I'm not at all sure what I'm supposed to blame the cold on. I only know I'll be eternally grateful to my TEMBO friends who left a good stock of facial tissues with me when they returned to Canada in November.

I think I'll tell you about my friend Mama Farajah tonight. She's Vickie, but as Farajah's mom, she usually gets the other title, just as to her I'm Mama Matthew (first born child). Vickie is now the hostel attendant here at the compound. Remember descriptions of the hostel? My first home here in Longido? (if not, perhaps I only THINK I wrote about it ages ago...can't get online to check). Anyhow, Vickie works 7 days a week, usually 12 hours or more, cleaning, laundering, airing mattresses in the sun, killing termites and generally trying to do the impossible...make the rundown hostel look attractive enough to guests that they'll consider paying the 2,000 shillings (about $2) price for an overnight stay. For this, she earns about $90 per month, and I'm not sure where even that salary is going to come from next month, when World Vision's transitional funding for this place runs out. She's a divorced single mother with 6 children, ranging from the adult Farajah, to Esau who is mentally ill, another son Ivan off at secondary school somewhere outside of the village, eldest daughter Loveness who is one of our TEMBO sponsored girls entering her final year of secondary school, son Michael who's just found out he passed the exam for secondary school and aspires to be a professional soccer player (and how I hope he got a sponsorship somewhere to attend secondary), and youngest daughter Larrie (about 10), who hangs out a lot at my house, playing with my modelling clay and various other toys and often, out of nowhere, pitching in with my housework by doing dishes or such without being asked. There's also baby Arnold (Farrajah's son) who still breaks into tears if I try to touch him, but otherwise has progressed to smiles and giggles when I'm around. It was Mama Farajah who taught me how to get my kerosene stove under control, and who so kindly took on the moonlighting job of cleaning my house when I first moved in to the guesthouse. On my return from Arusha yesterday, she was quick to run out and greet me with a yell, a smile and a huge welcoming hug, as she normally does every day when we first meet.

I think Mama Farajah has to work tomorrow, and I can't for the life of me understand why no one stops to think how much she deserves the day off with her family. I took her a Christmas card today, and a small gift of 10,000 shillings ($10) suggesting she might be able to use it to buy some nice treats for Christmas dinner for the kids. Well, like I've told you before, you don't often see a lot of strong emotional response from folks here, but she was moved to tears, I was pronounced to be a gift from God, and made a permanent member of the family. It takes so little to bring so much joy and gratitude here.

I wish you all the best possible gifts of Christmas. I know that my day tomorrow will be full of heartwarming moments shared with the wonderful people of Longido.

Merry Christmas, friends.

Jotu

City Girl II

End of my second full day in town. It's raining again, which is really quite a refreshing change from Longido weather of the past few weeks. Everyone seems to be talking about climate change here. It's very real to people that something's just not right. Droughts, heat waves then excessive rain, all of which cause incredible difficulty here – to livestock, crops, roads, you name it. Sad to realize that a country which is adding so little to the problems of global climate change may bear the brunt of those changes without sufficient financial resources to really cope with them.

Today I overate (ending with the cold bottle of beer I just finished minutes ago, before scurrying home in the downpour), spent an inordinate amount of time on the internet, enjoyed a visit to the Arusha home of Tina, our field coordinator in Longido, bought excessive amounts of Christmas chocolate at the ShopRite mzungu supermarket (plus replenishment of my stock of tuna fish and ramen noodles of course), enjoyed a long phone conversation with the women of Project TEMBO in Ottawa, spent lots of time talking to the street vendors, and generally had a good time. I think this stint of town-time was just what I needed. Thank you to everyone who is taking the time to send emails. I treasure them all.

And now, to sleep. Hopefully the rain means that the street noise will be minimal tonight and I may actually get a solid night of snoozing.

City Girl

It's December 19^th (I think!) and I'm back in Arusha for a few days.

I decided to do the sensible thing, and started my urban stint yesterday with a visit to the doctor at a good clinic. Still fighting a low-grade fever most days, and that makes it really hard to get out and cope with the midday heat of a typical sunny day. Not fun having my functional hours reduced to 2 or 3 in the morning, and 2 or 3 after dusk. Anyhow, happy to report that they tested my blood and I show no signs of malaria or the standard host of other usual suspects. Really glad to hear it's not malaria as that was what various village folk suspected, and quite happy to accept the good doctor's prognosis that it's probably a touch of the flu.

So here I am waiting out an afternoon rain in my room at the Lutheran Hostel, grateful for a rare, cool period. Humble digs...but for approximately $8 Cdn per night, it's more than adequate. Showers with hot water (most of the time), flush-toilets (of the sit-upon variety), electricity (again, most of the time) and a front door guard – what more could this mzungu ask for? Well, how's about a bathtub? I've got a craving for a bathtub, which is kind of silly since I've always been more of a shower person at home. Guess it's something to do with wanting what you know you can't have. I'd probably need to book into one of the really upscale hotels here to fulfill that wish, and it simply wouldn't be worth it. Somehow when you position a $100+ per night hotel room against new friends who have virtually zero income, it just isn't reconcilable.

So instead, I'm going to give myself a few days of small indulgences--lots of nutritionally balanced meals, no morning alarm clock, maybe a new novel or two from the bookstore. I enjoyed an amazing meal of Indian food last night, shared with good friends and a little wine. Perfect!

I was surprised (when will I learn to expect the unexpected?) to see the city restaurants and hotel lobbies filled with artificial Christmas trees, and hanging Santa decorations. As I collected my emails this morning at the internet cafe, I was suitably serenaded by the background strains of “I'll have a blue Christmas without you”. Somebody really likes that song...I think I heard it 3 times in the hour I was there! There is thankfully no sign of such Christmas commercialism in Longido. Everyone is very excited about the holiday coming. Lots of talk of buying new clothes and shoes for the event. I think the day itself is pretty well focused on church followed by a family gathering with lots of good food. I keep trying to get a clear handle on the concept of gift-giving so I don't find myself short of suitable things to give. However, as in most things, I don't seem to be able to get a clear answer. I think it's really quite arbitrary, but I expect that anyone I do buy a gift for will be more than happy to receive one.

I'm not sure how I'm going to approach the Christmas church attendance issue. Last Sunday I was invited by one friend to her daughter's confirmation ceremony at the Lutheran Church, and was also invited to another friend's son's baptism. Fortunately both were at the same church and the same service. Now I say fortunately, because otherwise I would have had to make a difficult choice and insult one or the other. The flip side is that by the time we got through both of those ceremonies, as well as communion for the confirmation candidates and the church elders, and not one but 3 different rounds of passing the collection plate, four hours had passed. The music was wonderful...a huge choir from the Secondary School, as well as a smaller women's choir. Singing along with Swahili hymns is do-able. The tunes are quite universal and since kiswahili is a phonetic language, even I could join in, at least while the unknown lady beside me was willing to share her hymn book. Perhaps I wasn't doing so well after all – halfway through the service she chose to start sharing the book with the man on the other side of her instead. The goats were a good diversion too. Someone donated them at collection time, to be auctioned off after the service for funds toward the church's new building fund. Similarly, someone donated a bag of eggs and a gallon jug of fresh milk for auction. But, the long sermon in Swahili was definitely a tough stretch for me, perched on a rough wooden bench. All this to say that whichever church I choose to attend on Christmas, I really must try to get an honest assessment of the probable duration of the service in advance, so I can at least arm myself properly with cool clothing and bottled water if necessary.

Little Pleasures - Dec. 15th

Small things mean a lot when life is reduced to the simplicity of just getting by each day. Last night I had a dinner date with a British woman who is doing volunteer language training here, with a group called Mondo Challenge. She brought along another volunteer from the US, newer to the village, as well as their supervisor from Arusha. Joseph joined us (to ensure there would be someone to walk me home in the dark after dinner) and so it turned into quite the little party. And, surprise, there was fried chicken on the menu (lately, chicken seems to appear no more frequently than once every 2 weeks, unless I special order it a few days ahead). In addition, for the first time I've ever experienced, they were frying up some tilapia fish from Lake Victoria. What a feast! Especially with a big heap of chipsi (fries) on the side.

Today little Arnold, who's probably almost two years old and one of the children who's been absolutely terrified by the very sight of me (happens about 20% of the time I'd guess) was finally won over by patience and toffee. He's now willing to look in my general direction, if not to look me in the eye, wave bye-bye and say Bye Jotu. One down...

And, today I decided to get tough with the stove. I sent Maali the askari off to buy me some kerosene and new wicking, as the latter seemed to be the source of a lot of concern when anyone would look at the stove. Armed with my multi-tool and the helpful advice of Mama Farrajah, the beast was dismantled, reassembled, refuelled, and is now behaving reasonably well. I was in a stay-at-home mood this evening so I skipped out on the usual trek to the village and ended up cooking ramen noodles with a can of tuna fish dumped in. Not gourmet fare, but my pantry (aka plastic bag) of supermarket food from the city is not very well stocked. Besides, just the fact that I was eating something different from the usual fare made it taste pretty darned good.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow. First thing in the morning Mary, our TEMBO librarian, is hosting a very special ceremony for her daughter Happyness. She has worked very hard to put together an Alternative Rite of Passage ceremony, as her daughter is now at the age when, (despite the process being officially illegal in Tanzania) her daughter would normally be circumcised as she enters womanhood. Mary travels throughout the region giving seminars about the problems of FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), trying to spread the word throughout the Maasai community about the inherent dangers in this process, and discussing alternatives. As has been done in other communities (though tomorrow will be a first for Longido), groups are working hard to promote these alternative ceremonies -- much of the tradition is retained...the girls are still taken aside and taught what they need to know by their mothers and female relatives, there is a large celebration, gifts are given...all the good bits remain, but the actual act of circumcision does not take place. I've been called upon to make my first official speech, and am hoping to win the crowd over with my introductory 5 lines of weak Kiswahili. Unfortunately, this all starts at 7am, mostly because that's the only hour the District Commissioner could fit into his schedule, and it's important that he attend to demostrate his support for this new ceremony to all in attendance. Yikes, this means I'll need to be up before 6am if I want enough time to heat some bathwater and toss back a little coffee. I've had to temporarily return my large-sized thermos jug to its owner for a few days so I can't make the necessary preparations tonight.

And so, I'd best put this posting to bed.

Continuing...next day. I just strolled down to the village in the sweltering mid-afternoon heat, hoping to check my email and submit this blog post. Unfortunately only 2 people have the key to the office which holds my precious dial-up connection. One is in Nairobi today, the other, nowhere to be found (which is rather hard to pull off in a village this size). Oh well, tomorrow may prove more fruitful, and meantime I'll just carry on.

The ceremony was really something to see. But first, let me digress (and the delay in getting around to describing the event will be fitting...you'll see) and tell you a little bit about "African time". An old aboriginal friend of mine back in Canada, used to excuse his frustrating perpetual lateness by sayng that he ran on "In'jun time". Well, let me tell you...he had nothing on this community. First of all, when someone tells you an hour to meet, you need to double check whether that's Tanzanian time or English time. The two clocks are different. Here, the morning begins at 6am with the sun, so for example the invitation I received for this morning's ceremony said 1:00 asubuhi (morning). That in itself could lead to sufficient confusion, BUT, it gets way more difficult when you toss in the idea that almost nobody here is even remotely time-conscious. I probably drive the locals crazy. They ask me to arrive at their home at some fixed hour and golly, I appear at that time, usually to find them in some state of semi-undress, only beginning to prepare for my arrival. (Some of you know, I've never been very savvy about the concept of arriving fashionably late).

So...this morning I ran around by candlelight heating bathwater, making coffee, packing up things for the ceremony, trying to find Joseph because I'd been entrusted with all of the office keys last night and he hadn't come by to pick them up yet, and promptly at 6:50 as discussed, I was on Tina's doorstep ready to walk together to the 7:00am event. To her credit (the poor woman is getting used to my crazy punctuality) she was only minutes away from being ready to go. We managed to arrive at Mary's home shortly after the appointed time and found everyone in the process of setting up the yard for seating, making streamers, firing up pots for food, beginning to dress the girls for the ceremony and such. We were ushered indoors to chat with everyone and wait. The previously mentioned District Commissioner, who had called for this early start time to begin with, showed up at about 8:30, and things started to swing into action.

The women gathered inside the house and laid out a stiff cowhide that is traditionally used to perform the circumcision on. Happyness was put through a simulation of how she would normally be held by the women during the actual act (no knives, I promise, and I do have pictures of a beautiful smiling young girl quite unperturbed by all of this), then, wrapped in a kanga (like a sarong, worn by all women here as an overskirt or apron when they're doing cooking, cleaning etc.) to symbolize her new womanhood, and taken outside to greet the crowd. I was then sent to join the head table and after a few introductory remarks, it appeared that speeches were to begin. Alas, the DC decided that since it was so early in the morning, there hadn't yet been time for a sufficiently large group to gather, in order to justify him making a speech. He declared that we would take a break and reconvene an hour later, at 10:00am. So, Tina and I headed back through the fields to her home for chai and an opportunity to sort out childcare for the rest of the morning. Back at 10:00 and hey, no surprise here, the DC had sent someone to assess the crowd and it still wasn't up to par so he delayed again. I think it was close to 11:00 when he finally appeared and things started up again. A groups of young girls, probably a few years ahead of their circumcision dates sang songs and did a little drama about how they didn't want to be put through the traditional ritual. And then, the speeches...I can only tell you that some folks here really have the gift of the gab, as my mom used to say.

Shortly after noon, I stood to give my quickie congratulatory speech and then had to beg off and leave. By this time I'd been frying in direct sunlight way too long and was near collapse. A quick goodbye to our hosts, a moment to give Happyness a little gift, and we were off. Of course everyone was concerned that I was going to miss the food, but I'd honestly reached the end of my heat-tolerance. The highlight of the morning for me, came when one of the elder women who has obviously been performing FGM for many years stood and said she would never do so again. Hopefully, today marked a real point of change which will spread rapidly through the community. Just so you know, it is now 6 pm and I can still here the boombox pounding from the general direction of Mary's house. I expect that all afternoon there have been new arrivals and that this party will last long into the evening as friends and relatives from throughout the area come and go.

Half-time check - Dec. 16th

I've just realized that I'm six weeks into my 3 month stay. Half-over already! It's really hard to believe this much time has passed, and it seems impossible to imagine that it will soon be time to think about packing up and coming home again.

What have I learned so far? Well, I can now almost consistently pee directly into the 4" x 6" hole of the average concrete latrine. Just think, I might have gone through life without mastery of that feat!

I've learned that I have lived an incredibly privileged life, full of so many things that are delightful but unthinkably extravagant relative to what's really needed to get by.

I've learned about many things that we seem to have lost track of in North America...what it REALLY means to selflessly help your neighbours, how to live in the moment and do what needs to be done right now (even if that means messing up somebody else's schedule!), what honest gratitude looks like.

I've learned that probably the only thing that could really make me crazy out here would be to not have the possibility of communicating with my friends and family at least every few weeks.

I've learned that when you're walking down the village road and somebody comes up behind and pulls the backpack off your back, you are NOT being mugged. Rather, someone has decided that you look like you could use a lightening of your load and will lug the pack the rest of the way home, more often than not grabbing a hand to hold at the same time.

I've learned that when you practise it long enough you can learn to walk confidently in the dark, just using your eyes as best you can and trusting that your feet really know what they're doing on a familiar stretch of road.

I've come to accept the Thermos as one of the great inventions of our time.

I've learned that unquestionably I am able to live alone, quite fearlessly, without pining for companionship. I've also learned that it would be amazing to have somebody in my life who could share this sort of journey, as I know it will be far from my last.

I wonder what the next six weeks will teach me.

What can I say? The kids are adorable and they keep running up when I've got my camera, yelling, "Picha! Picha!". Who could resist?
























This is a well-equipped Longido kitchen. You would NOT believe the feast that came out of this one!