WASH Clubs and Our Peer Educators

Yesterday I had another great day working on one of our projects. 

The YCI intern that was here over the summer started a WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) program just outside of Morogoro Town in a peri-urban community called Chamwino. Within the community of Chamwino there are major sanitation and hygiene issues. Because of the lack of sanitation and hygiene practices the people of Chamwino are left vulnerable to a wide range of diseases, viruses and parasites. 

Imagine the typical Canadian elementary school. You might see 500-700 students; running, drinkable water; enough toilets for student and teacher use; soap to wash your hands; and possibly a lack of dirt floors and holes in the roof.

Now imagine a school compound that has three different primary schools on it, with three different administrations, that combined are to educate 2800 students with less than 20 classrooms. These classrooms have dirt floors, holes in the roof and are full of broken bench desks. The ratio of students to teachers is close to 200 students per teacher, which is a shocking statistic but maybe not as shocking as the ratio of students to working toilets/pit latrines. These 2800 students are sharing a combined 8 pit latrines (which in Canada we might call outhouses). These toilets do not have doors and are lacking running water to wash waste away and for students to wash their hands when they are finished using the toilet.

The conditions at the Chamwino primary schools are atrocious. Our YCI intern, Jamie Van Egmond, developed a WASH program at the schools to not only start up five WASH clubs and increase knowledge and awareness of the importance of clean water, proper sanitation and healthy hygiene but also to provide a group of local high school students an opportunity to volunteer as peer educators for these students.

Check out Jamie’s blog at http://thesustainablepath.wordpress.com for more information on the project start-up.

This is Alex, a peer educator, teaching his WASH club how to play a game. Note the latrines in the background.

This is one of the larger programs we are working on here in Morogoro. Jamie passed the torch to us this past month as she completed her internship and we hit the ground running. With Duncan’s knowledge of health, Julie’s environmental background and my experience in training and development, we have come together to really help these students succeed. 

Julie is showing one of the clubs how they can keep their latrine clean and sanitary.

Every week, we make the trek to Chamwino. Two separate but equally uncomfortable, hot , sweaty, bumpy, and crowded Daladala rides just to get out to this community. Currently most NGOs will not even enter the community as it is still recognized as one of the most corrupt communities with high rate of drug abuse and crime. We arrive at the primary schools and meet up with our peer educators that have quite the hike to get to the WASH clubs. We are usually swarmed by the school children in the yard that want to see the mzungu (white person) and try to get a “tano” (fist bump). Once we have all arrived we split off and facilitate WASH club lessons at each primary school.

We taught the kids how to play Maji, Maji, Sabuni (Water, Water, Soap...Duck Duck Goose). The kids never play during school so they love when we let them play and have fun!

Some of my WASH club kiddies from Kambarage Shule Primary

The peer educators are amazing youth. They are volunteering their time to help the next generation of Chamwino students try to lead a better, healthier life than people in the past. They are true leaders and each come with their own special skills and characteristics. They have truly been a highlight of my time here. I had the opportunity to prepare, develop and facilitate a leadership workshop for them this past month and it was such a rewarding experience. 

One of my buddies, Freddy, teaching a WASH lesson.

Yesterday, we bussed them out of Chamwino over to our office in Kilakala. They were all happy, excited and grateful to be offered this training and had no complaints that they had to sacrifice their Saturday afternoon. The students arrived on time and prepared to participate, which says a lot about this group of students as arriving on time is not as much of a priority here in Morogoro.

Grace and Kadija - Blind Drawing - Grace is trying to explain to Kadija to draw a pair of eye glasses without telling her what the picture is. The students loved this activity. School for them is very much rote learning and school is never "fun".

Alex and Eddie may have had an unrecognizable flower in the end but they had fun!

The workshop was amazing and the students were attentive, anxious to learn and ask questions and were ever so appreciative for everything YCI has offered them. A couple even asked if they could volunteer with YCI in the future.

Left to Right (top): Winnie, Fatma, Kadija, Duncan, Irene, Me, Prudensiana, David, Freddy, and Joshua                   (bottom): Julie, Delta, Grace, Eddie, and Alex

Another great experience working with amazing youth. Every day I am inspired and yesterday was definitely one of my prouder moments in the work I am doing over here.

“Thank you to all of you from Canada, who take time to volunteer to us. I feel joy because you help me help my younger brothers and sisters in Chamwino. I did not feel confidence until you let me have this opportunity.” – Freddy Sanga

“I want to be a leader but before I not think it was to happen. You help me know how to be a leader and I feel confidence that I too can be a leader. I want to volunteer and help my people. Thank you.” - Delta Rabiely

Play Day at Home Based Care

Today we went to volunteer with a department of our partnering organization Faraja Trust Fund.

Home Based Care (HBC) is run by an amazing woman named Mama Mrema. Mama and her team of dedicated workers support infants, children and youth that have lost at least one parent to HIV/AIDS to receive health and social support in their homes. It was sad to hear these children have lost a parent or in most cases both however, it became a little overwhelming when she explained the true reality for these children was that they too were all HIV positive. 

Mama invited us to their monthly Play Day where they invite all of their 120 children and youth that they care for to an event at their centre. This event allows the children to get together, visit with their friends, visit with the HBC team and enjoy a full lunch (which a lot of these children do not get on a daily basis). After speaking with Mama about her team and her children in care, I have to say I was bordering an emotional breakdown. To speak to someone so passionate about saving the lives of the children she cares for and to see the reality of HIV and quickly it can take these innocent lives away was humbling and surreal. Mama explained to us that they lost three girls over the past month and she was already dreading the questions at the upcoming play day, “Why didn’t [she] come today?”

The morning of Play Day, all I was thinking about was how I would react emotionally to meeting all of these amazing children battling such a horrible virus/disease. Could I hold it together?!

We left our office Saturday morning with Frisbees (Send Ben to Africa Frisbees of course!), bubbles, crayons, books, and paper in hand to give to the children when we arrived. Our taxi pulled up to the HBC Centre and there were a few children out front playing football (soccer). Of course we got a few stares, as we do wherever we go ( there are few and far between white people or mzungus as they call us) but other than that they were happy to meet us. I walked through the gate and into the courtyard and I was quickly reminded of the admirable resilience and positivity of children. There were roughly 60-70 children all on a big mat playing with broken toys, headless dolls, used colouring books and they were nothing but smiles when we got there. I immediately pulled out the items we brought for them and I was swarmed with little hands.

The children were so excited for new crayons and paper!

I think every one of them gave me a picture to take home. I will be so proud to hang them on my wall!

Mama had asked Duncan (our health expert) to have a chat with the older youth about the importance of taking their ARVs (medications) to help them remain healthy in their fight against HIV. The talk was somber but the youth appreciated the information we provided. Unfortunately, the stigma around HIV is still huge, much like it is back home in Canada. These youth are worried about social rejection if their friends catch them taking ARV or find out they are positive. 

After we shared a meal with the children, YCI treated the older children and youth to an afternoon at Rock Garden. Frank showed up with the Daladala we rented and we were off for an afternoon of fun and relaxation. Rock Garden is a gorgeous park at the base of the mountains that surrounds the river coming down from the mountain. It is nothing but river, rock, trees and other greens. I had to reach out and touch stuff because its beauty was almost unbelievable. I felt like I was on the set of a movie set in a tropical paradise. We bought all the children a soda and they spent time jumping off the rocks and swimming in the river. A family of monkeys even joined us for a while in the trees above.

This little girl was too cute for words.

Although it was squishy my colouring friends wanted me to share their seat on the way to Rock Garden.

 

One of the many little pools the river and rocks create. The boys loved every second of it!

This was an experience I will never forget and these children and youth can really teach us something about life. The next time you ask “Why me?” when you feel something is unfair or unjust, think back to my friends living with HIV that was given to them at birth and just think…

My Head was in the Clouds!

Yesterday was, in my mind, my birthday present. All I wanted to do was climb one of the Uluguru Mountains and our friend Frank told us it would be his pleasure to take us up to the top!

We met Frank and his friend Steve at 6:30am to start our safari (no not lions and elephants, but safari simply means journey in Swahili). We caught a daladala from our homestay and rode to downtown. From there we began our trek out of town and into the mountains. Just as we were leaving the paved road for a dirt road that ascended up the base of the mountain a baboon ran across the road (about 100ft in front of us) and into someone's yard. I asked Frank if we would see any wild monkeys and he promised me that we would definitely see some during our climb!

We began our ascent on dirt roads that provide access to the few villages on the base of the mountain. On our way up the road we were passing all of the farmers and villagers heading to town with their freshly picked bananas and produce to sell at the market in Morogoro. Some of the women had to have had close to fifty pounds of produce on their heads.

I was amazed to see how and where the villagers/farmers were farming. Some of the slopes were at such steep angles that I could barely climb and these people are growing full crops of carrots, cabbage, bananas, and corn.

 

Once we were off the dirt roads, it became extremely difficult to walk. The narrow dirt paths were less than a foot wide and hanging on the edge of some very steep drops. Although we left the villages behind there were farmers all the way up the mountain.

It was hard enough to hike up a mountain but in 32 degree weather with a blazing African sun, we got pretty hot and sweaty!

  Frank took us to a place known as Morning Side, which was a German settlement in colonial times and is now used as an outpost and point of reference for those climbing. We had to sign in at Morning Side and pay a small fee just in case we didn't return they knew our names and they could contact the local authorities and hospitals. That was comforting. The best part about this amazing location was that when I researched Morogoro before coming here there is a beautiful picture of Morogoro Town taken from somewhere in the Uluguru Mountains (I found the place and now I have a picture of my own).

Morogoro Town - taken from Morning Side

 From Morning Side we continued hiking for a couple more hours, the slope getting increasing more difficult and narrow. We hiked to 5000ft above sea level which was the last portion of the mountain out of the jungle (yes...jungle). The top of the Uluguru Mountains is covered in dense jungle and at this point we still could not see the top of Bondwa Peak (our destination) as it was still covered in clouds.

Hiking into the Jungle at 5000feet

Just like the jungle in the movies and books, this jungle had vines, slugs, massive trees, leaves, sounds, and birds; it was damp and dark but beautiful and mystical. We climbed through the jungle another 2000ft above see level, tiring more and more at every step but Frank is such a motivational leader that he somehow kept us focused and smiling. We reached the peak at 7000ft above sea level about six hours after leaving home. We had literally climbed into the clouds. It was breathtaking to know how high we were but there was little to see at the top (because of the clouds).

Frankie felt so bad that I didn't get to see any wild monkeys he called me over and showed me what they look like. As you can see in the background there was nothing but cloud at the top...cloud and an all-too-happy monkey.

We stayed at the peak for about an hour or so, Frank and Steve cooked us lunch in a little hut at the top. To our delight, during our time in the hut cooking and eating lunch, the clouds dissipated and the view from 7000ft became very clear. I was speechless as were the others. I have never in my life seen such views (while standing on solid ground).

 

After lunch and too many pictures (that will never do it justice) we began our descent, which was quick. BUT...

Just as we were heading out of the jungle, frank stopped and shushed us. We looked up and 4-5 monkeys were jumping from treetop to treetop! AAAAHHHHH!!! I scrambled for my camera and got a couple pictures and none of them are great however, I got to see wild black and white colobus monkeys, in a jungle, on a mountain top in Africa. That's right.

Look closely in the center of the photo! This was the best shot I got but the fact that I got to see them swinging from tree to tree was priceless.

We completed the descent in less than half the time it took us to get to the peak, which is normal. My feet were so happy to be back in my birks at the bottom for the walk home. 

Big ASANTE to Frank and Steve for the trip to Bondwa Peak of the Ulugurus!

Nyumba Yangu - My House

Yangu ya nyubani karibu! Welcome to my house!

As you all know I had no idea about my homestay when I left Canada other than YCI would ensure it was a safe residence with running water and at least one person in the family who spoke English. Even when we were leaving Dar es Salaam for Morogoro last week after orientation, we did not know anything more than the three of us in team Morogoro would be in the same homestay.

We took a taxi from the bus terminal through Morogoro and turned off onto dirt roads, traveling through small little areas with clay brick houses, little dukas (stores), and lots of people on foot, bicycle and pikipiki (motorcycles). The closer we got to our homestay the closer we got to the Uluguru Mountains! The scenery was breathtaking and like most awe-inspiring natural wonders my pictures will not do them justice.

We pulled up to a big concrete wall and a solid red, iron gate which was opened by a little woman with a big smile, who I would soon learn is Diana, our dada or house assistant (will do an entire blog on Dada Diana at a later date; we love her).

We drove up the path to a quainte little white concrete house with a red roof and a stunning backdrop of mlimas (mountains). This is my house, yangu nyumba:

It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms with a kitchen, dining room, living room and pantry. We have a rooster (who thinks it's a race in the morning to beat the sun by cock-a-doodle-doing at 4am) named Joe (rooster in swahili is jogoo, so we thought it was fitting), a chicken and six ducks. Aside from our winged friends that live in our yard we also have the pleasure (because of the climate) to have not only a mango (maembe) tree but also an avocado (parachichi) tree, a lemon (limao) tree, an orange (chungwa) tree, guava (pera) tree, palm (nazi = coconut) tree, multiple banana (ndizi) trees and lemon grass. I like to think of it as a vegetarian's paradise, with local vegetables available in the market and on the street.

From left to right: avocado, mango, lemon, orange and palm trees

When we were introduced to our homestay family we were surprised to hear that it was a single mother with one daughter who is off at bordering school. Mama Jasmine is our homestay mother and she is a social worker with the city/municipality of Morogoro. We also have a house assistant or dada (sister) named Diana (pronounced DEEana) who has to be one of the most cheerful, pleasant and selfless people I have ever met. With Nasreen (Jasmine's daughter) off at school, Mama agreed to host us for the next couple months as she feels her house is too big for just her and she enjoys the company.

Duncan and I are sharing a room and Julie has a room just across the hall. We all share a bathroom and a shower room, which sounds luxurious right?! Well, they it is better than an outhouse and a hose but I am missing my toilet and hot water for sure. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to the squat toilet!

They don't use toilet paper in Tanzania either they use water, you can guess where our first stop was...grocery store to buy some TP!

 

This is my bedroom, it is cozy but it beats sleeping outside, on the floor, in a hammock, you understand. My bed is on the right, some of you will recognize the duvet cover, which is now my cocoon that I slide into at night, not for warmth but as a back-up to my mosquito net to prevent Malaria by not allowing me to have exposed skin.

I (we) are so happy with our homestay! Mama Jasmine and Dada Diana could not be more hospitable and kind. They are amazing and have made us feel right at home (and they are both AMAZING in the kitchen).

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the tour. Fortunately for us we are privileged to stay in a house with four walls, a roof, running water, food, and electricity. The reality is the majority of Morogoro is living well below the poverty line and although I miss a few modern conveniences from home, to see how we are living, even compared to our neighbours, is astonishing. I will definitely reflect more as the days and weeks go on about the reality that is Morogoro and Tanzania but for now I will leave you all feeling warm and fuzzy knowing your Ben is safe and sound in his lovely homestay!

Ok...one more picture of the mountains...just to gloat!

kwaheri na usiku mwema - goodbye and good night

Happy Thanksgiving Canada

Sitting here after work thinking about how thankful I am for my family and friends.
 I just wanted to share a few things us Canadians can be thankful for on Thanksgiving:

1. Not having to sleep under mosquito nets to protect you from malaria
2. Hot showers (hot water)
3. Minimum Wage
4. Health Care
5. Life Expectancy as high as we have (Tanzania is 56)
6. Toilets (not having to squat to use the facilities)
7. Public Transportation
8. Education 
9. Social Services
10. Safe Drinking Water - Unless you experience contaminated water first hand, you will never know the impact on your life. 

 I hope you are all enjoying Thanksgiving and please take the time to recognize some things we can be grateful for, living in our country.

 Duncan, Julie and I in the back of a taxi on our way to the bus depot in Dar es Salaam - traveling to Morogoro

Karibu – YCI Orientation in Tanzania

Karibu – YCI Orientation in Tanzania

After a long journey to a foreign country, YCI does not just drop you off at your homestay in different parts of the country and leave you to fend for yourself. We had two full days of orientation in Dar es Salaam to get us not only familiar with our projects and programs but also get us oriented to life in Tanzania.

Day One:

Woke up to the sounds of a mosque’s call to prayer, laughing school children (best sound in the world), and a rooster right outside our window (could have done without the rooster). When we checked in the night before we had no power or running water in the hotel so the first thing I checked was that we had power (we did); the second thing, running water (we did). This meant that I could have my first shower in over 24 hours, which doesn’t sound very bad but when you travel for 23 hours to get to a hot tropical location, you get pretty sweaty and gross.

After my first cold shower (there will be many, not by choice) we all met up in the hotel lobby to head to breakfast on the deck. We were greeted by our server with two options, English Breakfast or Tanzania Breakfast. I of course chose the Tanzania Breakfast which was chapatti (a flat bread/pastry similar to a crepe), which came with a sauce to dip it in (I tried my best to ignore what the sauce was made of), bananas and fresh passion-fruit juice. We all took our malaria pills and headed to the conference room for orientation.

Orientation was great. We met the country manager, Cheryl again and she introduced us to the project (location) managers: Linda, Shaib, and Makhoti (or Makho). Makho will be my manager in Morogoro and he is a Bango-flava rapper that has a passion for helping people in his community be the best they can be.

When we broke for lunch, we all walked together through the neighbourhood from the hotel to the YCI office/Cheryl’s house where her dada (house assistant) was cooking up a feast for us. It was interested to walk the dirt road filled with potholes, bricks, garbage and open sewers and drainage and to see the divide between the huts and massive mansion style houses that cohabit the same neighbourhood.

Lunch was amazing. We had cabbage salad with vinegar, a fruit salad (fresh papaya, avocados, and banana) and chapatti. One of my favourite things about TZ is that avocados or parichichis are locally grown and are oh-so-fresh and delicious!

Although jet-lag for some began to kick in orientation was fun, upbeat and covered a lot of material that needed to be covered. We spoke about YCI, its partner organizations, our projects in TZ and roles and responsibilities. We were reminded of very serious safety concerns (which were eye opening but very important) as well as recreational activities, sights to see, etc.

After a quick Kiswahili lesson from Linda and Domitila, we had some free time to shower and rest before we were all heading to dinner. That we did.

We all met in the lobby to head to dinner. We walked over to the YCI office and picked up Cheryl and Domitila. From there we walked the very dark streets past open-burning fires, speeding cars and motorcycles and locals out having a good time to Mona’s which is a local restaurant. It was an outdoor restaurant that consisted of a bar, a grill and a projector (projecting the soccer or football game on a large white wall for the patrons to watch). We quickly realized that menus don’t exist in TZ because they never know if they can offer an item, pretty much until the day of, which means everyday is Food of the Day (no complaints here). I ordered the Somaki no Chipsi which was grilled fish and chips (my other options were goat and chicken). Dinner was excellent and it was great to sit down and get to know my fellow YCI’ers, program managers and Cheryl a bit more.

We all took bajajis back to the hotel (a three wheled taxi) and it was off to bed as we had a full day of orientation the next day (kesho = tomorrow).

Day Two:

Oh the sounds of the rooster in the morning. We will be glad to be rid of the rooster that lives outside our hotel room.

We all met for breakfast on the deck again with the same options as yesterday. I went with the Tanzanian breakfast again the chapatti were great.

Today we broke off into our own project areas and spoke with our project managers about what we will be doing. It was very interesting to see how the projects had changed from the initial outline but I was just as motivated to get started.

My team for Morogoro consists of myself (bring my social service experience and HR), Julie (a water and environmental specialist) and Duncan (pre-med). YCI and the partner organizations are definitely going to take advantage of our diverse skill sets while we are here and that is how the projects have been reorganized to meet the objectives and needs of the Morogoro area. We will be working on Environmental Sustainability programs, WASH programs (with children in the area of Chumwino, which is a slum outside the city), International Men’s Day (focusing on the male role in sexual heath and roles and responsibilities), as well as conducting different needs analysis and training for local staff and volunteers in the aforementioned areas.

After a long day of orientation, we had a really fun Swahili lesson with Domi and Linda before we went off to get ready for dinner at Brake Point (a local restaurant that serves a little more than Mona’s).

We all took bajaji’s to the restaurant and I was called out by my fellow volunteers that I will try anything once. Antelope was on the menu and although I really didn’t want to consume the meat, I definitely would never have the opportunity to try it again. So I did. I only ate a few small pieces as it tastes much like any other meat. I preferred the baked plantains with hot tomato dipping sauce (much like a fresh salsa).

I thought the antelope would be the most exciting/scary part of our evening but I was wrong.

Bajajis only take three people in the back, unless you get a big one but there are not very many of those. So, when we left the restaurant, all volunteers and managers piled into three bajajis and headed back to the hotel.  Our driver was following the other two carrying the other volunteers and two of our managers. For some reason, our driver pulled out and passed both of the other bajajis. Ok. It’s a race! Or so we thought. What you need to understand is these little motorbikes (trikes essentially) are weaving in and out of traffic and going too fast for what they are and where they are driving. We thought it was fun at first (we had passed the other bajajis and we were winning) until the other two behind us turned off to the right and our driver kept going.

He knew a short cut…maybe.

It wasn’t until he pulled off the main road and parked at the side of the road without saying anything that we began to be concerned. You see, today in orientation we were warned about thieves that will do things like this to rob muzungus (white people). So my instinct was that we were in danger. I could imagine his buddies were waiting for us to park there and they would swarm the bajaji. The driver even at one point got out and ran across the road, disappearing into the dark and leaving us in the bajaji on the side of the road in a pitch black neighbourhood.

Our driver turned around and started shouting in Kiswahili to which I replied “Hapana Kiswahili” (no Swahili), to which he replied “Hapana kiangaresa” (no English). Luckily I had received my YCI cell phone in orientation today and I was able to call our managers who were a little worried at this point as we had gone missing for a little too long.

It turns out our driver was lost. He thought he know where he was going and he didn’t. Makho was able to direct our driver over the phone back to the hotel and we arrive back safe and sound, all possessions in tact with a really good story to take home.

We packed (crammed) all of our things back into our backpacks and said our good-byes as all of the teams were traveling to their locations in the morning (as early at 6am, poor Arusha volunteers).

T11-8D Orientation was a great introduction to the country. It was informal and informative and provided us with a solid foundation to be safe and succeed in our work here in TZ.

Thank you Cheryl, Domitila, Linda, Shaib and Makho (and Cheryl’s dada for cooking us lunch)!

Mambo Tanzania!

Well, I hope everyone at home is well! Sorry for not posting for a whole week but it has been a busy week at that. We are finally getting to settle into our new home in Morogoro but it was quite the journey to get here…

So I was getting ready to put my bags in my car and say my final goodbyes last Sunday when I got a phone call from KLM letting me know they had rebooked all of my flights and connecting cities at the last minute. First reaction, was panic but then I found out instead of Amsterdam I was going to Paris, and instead of KLM, I was flying Air France. Ten years ago I left Barrie on my first international flight to go on exchange for three months to France, so this being my second big international adventure, I was happy to have a little bit of familiarity added to my first leg of the trip.

We arrived in Paris Monday morning and it was time to take that first, dreaded anti-malarial pill that you hear horror stories about but…I was supposed to take it with food, so naturally I went for a freshly baked pain chocolat (which I used to get every morning on my way to school in France). The pill went down and stayed down! With the exception of brief periods of delirium and dazing off for short periods of time I really didn’t feel too bad.

From Paris we flew to Nairobi on Kenya Airways and from Nairobi (where we almost missed our connecting flight) we flew to Dar es Salaam. After going through a very long but friendly process of entering the country and getting travel and work visas (including a power outage), we were meet by our country manager and we were off to the hotel for the night. 

We woke to the sounds of school children, a mosque’s call to prayer and a rooster just outside our window…and then it was time for Orientation!

Meet Team T11-8D!

 There is a lot more to come! I will try to get back on over the weekend with some more updates!

Kwaheri usiku mwema