My First Friday

August 29, 2008
9:25 PM

What a busy day! Up at 6:30, breakfast at 7:30 (scrambled eggs, toast & tea), dropped my key off at reception so the maid could do some cleaning throughout the day, then across the way to Lyn's place to wait before our ride to Arusha had arrived.

The ride to Arusha took approximately an hour and a half, I was not paying much attention to the time as I was fascinated by the new landscape surrounding me. Before getting on the main highway we stopped to get gas at one of the local petrol stations, and above the clouds, Kilimanjaro appeared. She is quite a beautiful mountain. So tall! The snow capped peaks are small compared to the size of the mountain and I can see why many people can come to Moshi then leave a few days later without ever seeing the snow.

After noticing how big Kili is and how beautiful, I think I have decided that climbing the great mountain is not something for me. Just staring at the snow covered peak is quite enough thank you. I can't say I have ever thought of climbing something just for the sake of it in the past, why start now? Unless of course climbing will result in an adrenaline rush free fall of course. (Previous African adventure stories should be considered here).

After filling up with petrol we stopped to pick up William at his home in Moshi then hit the highway. All along the highway between Moshi and Arusha are little shops and people herding their animals. Many Masaai with their cows and other people dressed in what I would consider traditional African clothing, with cows, donkeys, and goats. I even saw one man walking his cow along the road with a lead. Unfortunately I was not camera ready, and the people of this area do not like to be photographed, at least without consent they do not.

The terrain surrounding the minibus reminds me of the Big Island, Hawaii. Some areas look very rocky with dark soil, and others with sparse plants or trees. There are also random little hills all over. The road itself is only 2 lanes but the majority of it is paved well. However, there is one spot close to the airport road which has a detour right off the road into the dirt. Before and after this little detour are 'speed humps' made out of rock, gravel and dirt. Very bumpy as we would say in Canada, and I guess very humpy here.

There was a nice breeze along the road coming in through the half glassed window. I never heard the story of why, but one of the glass panes was missing and needed to be replaced in Arusha. I thought this was the same minibus that we took into Moshi yesterday, windows intact, but perhaps I was wrong.

Arusha didn't immediately appear to be a bigger city than Moshi, the main thing I did notice when we drove into the city was that the hotels that line the sides of the road in Arusha look very North American/European, as opposed to the small boarding house/apartment style buildings here in Moshi. I overheard a story that one of the hotel owners used to be the Minister of Finance….interesting.

The Mkombozi Arusha office is located in a house. When you drive through the gates the house faces the laneway with a small porch. Walking through the double doors into the house the large room was set up with small tables forming a boardroom table, but I am not sure if it is always set up like this because I noticed as I was leaving the tables had been set up into smaller tables around the room. To your right when you walk in is a small washroom (shower with toilet but sink outside of the room) then you walk into the office of external communications. I was given a thorough overview of what they do in that office from fundraising to contact with media and donor relationship building. As there are only 2 people in this department they seem to have their hands full!

For a morning snack we ate some buns, bread that appeared to have been fried, and meat samosas. Anna made some coffee which was strong enough to wake me up. My first coffee since leaving Canada! I think part of me thought I wouldn't need it anymore. I was wrong.

While eating our snack Anna showed me the Mkombozi branding, which is the method that all documents are formatted from the centre. Certain fonts and font sizes are used for all the documents and I will need to keep track of these for any documents that I produce. If you look on their website you can see the consistency (www.mkombozi.org) It is helpful for people to immediately recognize information coming out of the centre. I learned that one of the designers that works with the centre is actually in Canada and they correspond between the two countries when producing new documents to be released to the public.

The rest of the morning I spent reading over Mkombozi's child protection policy (26 pages and not unlike what you would find at many agencies in Canada). From my current limited knowledge, it appears that there are no laws protecting children in Tanzania at this point. There are laws that may indirectly affect them but no protection laws. If a child does not file a report about their abuse then the government cannot do anything about it. Mkombozi is lobbying for change. They have some pretty cool programs right now to spread the word about child protection including having the children perform some educational plays, spending days in the Arusha market informing the sellers & patrons about what is considered abuse and how they can help to protect them. Many of the children spend time in the market trying to make money and this would educate those around them on why some of them end up there and also to help protect the children of the people that go to and work at the market. I'm not sure how much sense I am making here, but it sounds like a great initiative!

Just before lunch I went into the office of the social workers and chatted with Fikari and Pascal. We were comparing street youth in Canada to Tanzania, which made me realize I don't know enough about street youth in Canada! A few of the questions that keep coming up from others are "why are you here?" , "what are the main issues in Canada?" and "why did you choose social work?" Hmmm, so this is where the soul searching, life changing reflection comes in. I expected people to ask me questions but I guess I didn't expect the questions I am supposed to be exploring for myself to be asked by others.

Both of the men were surprised when I told them about methadone clinics and needle exchanges in Canada. And I think they were also looking for problems in Canada that were spread generally to the whole population. By the end of our informal discussion I walked away thinking that there is no one answer to any 'simple' question.

Lunch at the centre was potatoes, peas and carrots in what I would call a stew with bananas on the side. Very good! Fikakari and I chatted about what we do in our spare time which maybe surprisingly were not very different. Although I failed at describing what Dragon Boating is and need to remember to take him a photo next time I am in Arusha. He looked very confused when I said there are 20 people paddling at once in a boat similar to a canoe. Then Fikari and I headed out onto the streets with one of the boys, Jimsi.* This is where I say that while I am trying my best to learn everyone's names, there is a good chance that I am spelling them wrong. Perhaps by the end of my placement I will have them all worked out!

My first impression of Arusha on foot was that it reminded me of Cape Town, much smaller in size but the lay out of the streets and the bustle of people triggered the SA memories. I did not even attempt to try and figure out the organization of the streets on this walk but instead tried to absorb what was going on around me. Fikari stopped a few times to greet street kids/youth that he recognized and a few times the kids would run right up to him. It was obvious that they really like him even though I barely understood anything they were saying. They all appeared very eager to greet me and I tried my best to get the responses correct "Hapari" - "Nzuri" "Mambo" - "Poa" . Fikari said my Swahili needs to get slightly - ok immensely better before I can converse with these kids, but also that by spending more time in the streets with them I will start to understand more.

Fikari showed me the areas where kids spend their time on the streets at different times of the day and different the different age groups. We walked by many shops and through a park where people were sleeping on the grass. "just having a nap" according to Fikari, but the area would be filled with drug users at night. My only clue to any direction we walked was Mount Meru hanging over the city. One part of the walk took us down some streets with stalls selling various things from clothing, to electrical plugs and some selling bags or food. Fikari asked if this was similar to Canada. I had to laugh picturing these little stalls lined up along a road in Canada with 3 feet of snow…hmmm not only would all the merchandise become soaked and unsellable, but I can't see many Canadians trekking outdoors to buy a new shirt. I explained our concept of malls and how we like things indoors for the most part. From here we headed to the main market, which was huge! This was the first time where I heard "mzungu" repeated. (side note - mzungu stems from the word zunguka which means to go round, to turn, to wander or to travel but is used toward foreigners - mostly those with white skin).

One part of the market was filled with many different kinds of vegetables, so many colours. Each stall would sell different kinds of vegetables which made me wonder how I would decide who to buy from when I do need to buy veggies. Then we went down some stairs into another area which was filled with vendors selling spices, and grains. Many rows of barrels and surfaces covered with different colours and textures. I didn't see the whole area but I imagine it could have easily been the size of the market building in St. Jacobs. On our way out the other end I happened to notice one table which was covered with what looked like dried fish. Interesting.

I tried to think of what the sounds and smells were while we walked but nothing really came to me. There were times when I recognized the smell of tobacco, not cigarettes, just tobacco, or caught a strong smell of oranges as we walked by someone selling oranges out of a wheel barrow on the street. The sound of the city I cannot describe and will try to pay better attention today when I head out into Moshi.

There were a few beggars on the streets of Arusha, mostly with visible disabilities. Other people on the streets ranged from men in business suits to women in traditional clothing and children dressed in t-shirts and jeans. One boy who came up to Fikari was wearing a "hombres en negre II" T-shirt with a picture of Will Smith on it. The narrow paved streets were filled with drivers, without regard for pedestrians, driving anything from a Mercedes to K-cars and motorcycles. There were also many bikes, although I didn’t' see any helmets and with those cars I'm not sure I would want anyone I know to be riding one!

Many people walked around with cell phones texting or talking, and the line up at the Vodacom store where I went to buy a SIM card was quite long and we sat in the chairs and waited until the security guard at the door let us know it was my turn. The woman at the cashier station asked how much I would like to spend on airtime, and being new to the country I had no clue what would be beneficial. Well, she showed me the rate times and for me to call Canada on my phone is 550 TZS which equalls approximately 50 cents Canadian per minute. (at the time I changed some money over on Thursday the exchange for US/TZ was 1155.45 TZ per US dollar) Hmmmm ok how much for texting? I bought 5000 Shillings worth of air time which I tentatively have worked out to 132 shillings per text (~10cents/text). Ok that will probably last me a week…

Walking back to the centre I started to recognize things and thought I MIGHT have been able to find my way myself. With a map for sure. I spent the remainder of the afternoon there catching up on my 70 emails and chatting with my sister on google chat. Then helped one of the social workers set up an account on facebook. Which made me wonder if I am a bad influence already. I did ask around and some of the other social workers already have accounts so I do not take any responsibility for lost work time in that office.

The ride back to Moshi was uneventful. I took some more photos which I plan on posting at some point. Lyn shared that when she used to train the CIDA interns she would tell them to take as many pictures as possible when they first arrive somewhere because as you become accustomed to where you are living you are less likely to want to take pictures and your excitement for the place is gone. I took more pictures, but we were driving fast so not many turned out.

I decided that today (it is now Saturday) I will head into Moshi rather than travelling back to Arusha. I want to see the town I'm living in and decide if I want to stay where I am living now or find a new place.

Last night for dinner I was starving when we returned but realized that it was late (almost 7pm) and I couldn’t walk into town. The kitchen at the lodge was closed because the cook wasn't feeling well, and I think Cuthbert felt bad for me because he offered to make some chicken and chips. Sounded good, tasted great! Maybe I was starving, but the chicken had so much flavour, almost sweet and it was on the bone (those that know me, know I rarely eat meat on the bone…we'll leave that explanation for a different sort of blog). The chips (fries) were just crispy enough and there was also a serving of cooked peas. I didn't even complain in my head about the 'tomato sauce' not being heinze ketchup. For the majority of the meal I was the only one in the dining area and watched an Indian soap opera with English subtitles. It was getting good when they changed the channel, and unfortunately I didn’t' catch the name of the show!

Ok time to get ready for breakfast then hit the town! (wow this was a long one!)