A Lifetime in a Few Weeks in Zambia

Here is my attempt to recapture a lifetime of feelings and experiences since arriving in Zambia on 6 November.  There are times I feel words seem so inadequate to describe life here for rural Zambians; it is rich and tragic at the same time.  The Zambian people are a proud, hospitable, friendly people despite the fact most face daunting socio-economic challenges and widespread HIV/AIDS infection rates that threatens every aspect of life here.

My flight arrived on time in Lusaka after making stops in Nairobi and Lilongwe (Malawi).  I had been up since 0200 and had only slept a few hours before rising.  I felt wrecked.  I cleared customs and located a man holding a sign that said "Pact Zambia".  I approached him and introduced myself.  His name was Owen and was the driver for Pact.  "How nice I thought" someone here to greet me and take me where I need to be.

We walked out of the airport and the weather was hot and the sun bright; I could feel the intensity of the sun on my skin.  Oddly, I also felt this sense of relief and security.  It was a good feeling and a good vibe.  I was where I should be.  It was about a 40 minute drive from the airport but Owen made it in much less.  He knows how to drive.

I was met at the office by Jeannie Zielinksi, Chief of Party, for Pact Zambia.  I was given a big stack of manuals and an equally large stack of Kwacha (the currency used in Zambia).  The manuals were to bring me up to speed on the program Pact operates in Zambia and the Kwacha would fund my trip to Luapula Province in two days' time.

I spent a couple of hours at the office before telling Jeannie I needed to get to where I would be staying thinking it was 1600 hours (4:00PM) when I had forgotten to reset my watch and it was really 1500 (3:00PM).  She could sense I was wrecked and told me to head out.  We agreed that Jeannie would pick me up the next morning (Saturday) so I could join her to "the mall" to do some shopping for our road trip together on Sunday.

I checked into the "Marble Inn" just down the road from the Pact Office.  I had a well deserved and needed shower and set out for a walk to find water and food for dinner.  On my walk I noticed how different the feel was in Lusaka from Arusha.  Though it is a capital city, the feeling of Lusaka was not as kinetic and frenzied as that of Arusha.  There were certainly a lot of people moving about, traffic snarled, horns honking, but it felt less intense and threatening.  I welcomed the new feeling.  I walked to Cairo Road and found a Shop Rite store in the midst of a busy Friday afternoon when people were just "knocking off" from work.  There were long lines in the store but I found what I needed and set out to get back to the Marble Inn by dark.

I spent the evening reading and trying to bring myself up to speed on the work of Pact with their local partners throughout Zambia between watching some pretty hysterical local Zambian TV mixed with MTV a la Zambia and the craziest revivalist-voodoo-snake worship-TBN-like show that I had such a good laugh over.

Jeannie did get me at 0800 on Saturday and we went to Manda Hill Mall.  The mall is going through a makeover to add new shops and parking.  Otherwise it really resembles a strip mall by the big American mall standard.  I got some cash, bought some food for the drive and purchased a Zain Zambian SIM card for my phone.  Jeannie dropped me back at the inn and I spent most of the daytime hours reading.

I took a walk to scope out permanent accommodation for myself for when I returned to Lusaka.  I had communicated with a place called Nena Guest House so this was my first stop.  I arrived and immediately ran into this guy who was also walking toward the guest house office.  I asked him "are you staying here"? "Yeah, I am" he replied.  We started talking.  I wanted to know how the place was, how much they charged, etc.  We got to talking further.  Roger, from Ireland, was/is in Zambia working for an Irish health care NGO.  I told him I had just come from Tanzania where I had a good friend--also Irish--working in health care for an FBO (faith based organization) thinking, as I always do, about networking and trying to put people together in the pursuit of their endeavors.   "Where were you in Tanzania?", Roger asked.  "In Arusha", I replied.  "Paul Doran", Roger exclaimed!  "Is that your friend in Arusha"?  We both started to laugh at how unlikely it would be for such a coincidence to happen.  The world is a small place when you travel; I don't even think it is a matter of six degrees of separation anymore for me.  Maybe it is down to four degrees.  Roger and I made plans to get together when we are both in Lusaka at the same time.  I returned to the Marble Inn via a stop at the Backpackers Hostel to check on their accommodation.  By-the-way, I won't be staying at hostel; been there done that.  I need something a little bit more comfortable.

On Sunday, Charles, another driver for Pact, was around at 0615 to pick me up and take me to the office to meet the others, pack the car and get underway for our 14 hour journey northwest to Luapula Province.  Jeannie's car had broken down just down the road from the office and Charles and I went to assist her.  By the time we arrived there, Jeannie's husband Mike and his golfing buddy were there as well.  Four of us pushed the car about 150 yards to the office compound.  Nice way to start the day before getting into a car for 14 hours.

Mbuwa Kabwe, a finance officer with Pact also joined us for the trip to Luapula.  It was a journey indeed.  We were on the road by 0700 and did not reach the town of Nchelenge until nearly 2100 (9:00PM).  We made a few stops along the way for breakfast in Kabwe and for lunch in Sarenje where I met an old Peace Corps volunteer by the name of Steve from California sitting on a porch, drinking a beer and reading a book as it rained outside.  He married a local woman who owns the restaurant.

We drove through pouring rain that required Charles to slow the car to a crawl and drove passed a rolled over truck on the side of the road were those riding in it had taken all of what could be salvaged from the wreck and stacked it neatly next to the ruined vehicle.  The driver (or perhaps another involved in the crash) laid inside the wreckage looking a bit unwell.  Charles assured me help was on the way for these poor stranded people.  It is also amazing to see the number of people on the two lane highway walking--in the middle of nowhere.  I continued to wonder from where they were coming and going many of them barefoot, some on bicycles, women with infants and small children wrapped to their backs with brightly colored fabrics and some carrying heavy loads of wood or coal or other goods.  The roads were treacherous in some areas with deep pot holes sometimes stretching from one side of the road to the other requiring shoulder driving to avoid them all together.  Night driving would be out of the question on these roads.  Running into a pot hole a foot deep would be ruinous to any vehicle.

Nchelenge was dark by the time we arrived.  We found our guest house (loosely speaking) with a little help from the locals.  I have to admit after checking in I longed for the comfort of a layover hotel while on the road flying at home.  Well, needless to say I made the best of it.  There was water, that was good.  It was dirty and fouled and the pressure was not adequate enough to allow it to flow through the hand-held shower fixture.  I had to result to filling a plastic tub and dump it over me.  The smell and taste of the water was disgusting but better, perhaps, than the alternative. There was a ceiling fan, that was good but the light bulb attached to it had to be unscrewed as the pull string was not working.  The was a refrigerator, that was good and there was nothing bad about it.  The mosquitoes and other bugs were present in great numbers and most effective at night.  Morning did not come soon enough.

We arrived early at the office of Nchelenge Inter-Denominational (the acronym is NIDSLYG and for the life of me I cannot get past the first three letters!).  The office was housed in a district government office complex.  The office measured about 8'x8' and into this space was crammed two desks, a large safe, file cabinet and wall shelving that held volumes of binders "box files as they are known and a high bar like counter at the entrance.  In this same space worked 3 to 5 NID representatives and now we added 4 more bodies to that mix.  The weather was hot and humid as Nchelenge sits on the shores of Lake Mweru.  Added to the heat was my perspiration of not knowing exactly what my role was going to be and the effects of the 14 hour journey the day before.  Jeannie conducted an entry meeting outlining our objectives of the compliance visit and it was then I found out more about my role.  It didn't seem out of my reach.

I worked on reviewing data from the binders ensuring that it was complete and accurate.  I had a template of sorts from which to work and put the data I found into an excel worksheet that I labored through to figure out on my mac.  Years of being a flight attendant have given me little reason to develop my excel skills and I was horribly aware of the fact I might need to say "I'm not sure I can do this in excel".  The emperor had no clothes!  I was going along pretty well when things went wrong.  I recovered.

We went for lunch at a local place where we all ordered  the fish.  How could we not when we were situated on the shores of this great lake? I had my first exposure to nshima and eating with my hands.  Nshima is a maize flour that when added to boiling water produces something of a mass of stiff, sticky carbohydrate dough that is heaped high on the plate.  There is enough of it on each plate to feed a family of four.  This is the staple for Zambians and is eaten with just about every meal.  It is the filler in the diet and everything served with it is considered "relish".  The relish could be a steak, chicken, fish, whatever.  At the meal and on the plate nshima is central.  I knew this was going to be an omen for my diet.

We finished the day back at the office in the heat doing more of the same.  I documented any irregularities I found in the data I reviewed and waited or something else to go wrong with my computing skills.

That night I have to admit I laid in bed and wondered how I could change my ticket to go home  I felt defeated and it was all I could do to just fall asleep.  Was I doing the right thing being here?  Was the work beyond my capabilities?  Should I just be satisfied with going home and continue my flying career?  It was a heavy and hard night for me.  Of course I was being my own worst enemy.  I wish I could get that while I drag myself through the mud!

The next day we were back at the office and set out for our Nchelenge site visits to the schools and communities that have implemented the Y-CHOICES program.  We visited a Catholic Church and interviewed the young peer educators (P/Es) and the adult mentors who help them in reaching their peers in the community with abstinence and being faithful (A/B) message sessions.  The group was mostly shy, timid and quiet.  There was an exception though.  A young man seemed to take on the role of "spokesperson" for his peers in saying the shirts they were provided to identify them as P/Es were not of good quality and that being a P/E was taking its toll as it was planting time in the fields and the responsibility of being a p/e was taking an economic toll when they could otherwise be working in the fields.  He also wanted an umbrella since the rainy season was set to begin.  I was proud of him.

The next day we visited Nchelenge High School where we were greeted by a couple of teacher mentors.  We were made to wait for, what I learned that day would follow on each school site visit, an obligatory meet and greet with the headmaster of the school, before any other business could happen.  The headmaster's office, like most to follow, was filled with clutter.  The walls were lined with poster paper on which was neatly written school statistics like passing rate, teachers names and home rooms and of course the picture of his excellency Rupiah (something-or-other) Banda, the president of the Republic of Zambia.  I hope I can find a picture of him to bring home.  What a laugh and what a pity someone didn't ask him to take more than one picture in order to choose the best one.  Th room was crammed with over sized-70's-style-worn through couches and matching broken down chairs.

We were taken on a tour of the school which included classrooms, the cafeteria and kitchen and the dormitories that would make any university student in the US think twice about complaining about their housing.  Broken windows, overcrowded conditions, and clothing strewn from top-to-bottom and of course the stench that comes with that number of young men and women living in such close quarters.  Unlike the dorm room you can envision, this is an open room-like hostel with bunks and absolutely no privacy.

We met with a small group of P/Es and the 2 mentors where we had a frank discussion about sex, HIV/AIDS and how these young people have done with their jobs as P/Es.  One girl, when asked about where young people learn about sex, she replied, "from movies, TV and books".  Parents were absent from the equation.  It made me think of my generation and how, in my experience, little was mentioned about sex, sexuality, etc.  While I think things are different today in the US it is culturally taboo for parents to have any kind of discussion with their children in Zambia on something as innocuous as courtship let alone sex, sexuality, pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases (STIs), etc.  This could be why the rates of HIV/AIDS and other diseases are so widespread.  Further, Zambian culture encourages young men to become men as soon as possible in their adolescence.

We carried on to Kashikishi Basic School where school children ran amuck around the playground with the particular focus on the merry-go-round that is acutally part of a system that pumps water from the ground below the merry-go-round to a large tank high above ground.  It is known as the "play pump". Again we were escorted into the headmaster's office and I was happy to see a robust headmisstress behind her lace covered desk and walls covered floor to ceiling with eye numbing figures, charts and names.

We met with a large group of young people, wise for their young years, in a bare concrete-floored classroom with broken windows and desks and chairs in various stages of disrepair.  We conducted our interview with these young people and their mentor Mr. Banda (a popular surname in Zambia).  He was fantastic and so committed to the program and the education of these young people.  Unfortunately, the lack of understanding of the subject matter and using their second language (English) to discuss it lended itself to many errors in the messaging we were hoping for.  At one point, a really bubbly, out going girl said it was OK to have premarital sex!  Mr. Banda shot her stink eye and the poor headmisstress sitting in back bowed her head.  A small, bald young boy, clearly a victim of poor nutrition, sat in the front row and raised his hand to speak with every question asked.  He became the spokesman for the other quiet ones in the group.  We encouraged him and the others to speak in their native Bemba language and he railed off how he had been ridiculed by his peers for being a P/E and accused of benefitting from doing so.  It broke my heart.  As we walked out toward the playground I stopped to shake his hand and thank him for having the courage he showed us and to be a P/E in the face of adversity.

We were up early the next day for our 2 hour drive to Kawambwa.

Lusaka, Zambia Here I Come

Just got in from an amazing get together of the friends I have met the last 2 months of being here in Arusha.  Why is it when it comes time to say goodbye you realize just what you have?  How fortunate to meet the people I have and to call them friends.  We met at Via-Via for dinner and a drink and some good chatter.

I have to leave for Kilimanjaro Airport at 0300 and it is already 2300 here.  Sleep is not something I will have a lot of tonight.  And when I arrive, it is straight to the office for introductions.  Friday night in a hotel bed is going to feel mighty good.

I am over the shock of the $968 round trip airfare to Lusaka from Kili via Nairobi.  Ouch.  Volunteering while looking for work costs money.  Having said that I have gone round and round with myself about whether or not I am doing the right thing and tonight I now know it is just the thing for me.  My friends agreed and one has been in development work for 15 years and has lived and worked in Lusaka.

Zambia has an HIV infection rate of over 25%.  That is 1 in 4.  I will be working on an HIV education program of children and youth through our local partners in the rural areas of the country.  On Sunday I leave for a one week tour of the northern part of the country where I will be mentoring local partners and encouraging family discourse on HIV.  All of the work will be framed in the course material I received through the Monterey Institute class in DC back in June.  Time to put classwork into practice.

I am thankful for the lessons--some bloody difficult--I have learned while in Arusha.  I know there was a reason I started here--to get my feet wet in Africa and to know the saying "that's Africa, baby".  The lessons won't stop here.

On to Lusaka.

More later.....

Too Many Titles from Which to Choose!

This posting could have been titled, among many others, "Life's Tragedies", "To Catch a Thief", "Steady Progress" or "That's Africa, Baby".  These are some themes and thoughts I have considered since my last entry.

I cannot get over how quickly time is going.  My weeks are so full, everyday something, everything, that time seems to just slip by.  I wonder if time goes more quickly when you enjoy what you are doing or if it is just moving quickly regardless.

Where to begin?

The housekeeping thief who took my money was apprehended in Dar es Salaam.  I find it totally incomprehensible that in a city of over 3 million the guy who took my money was caught.  How could it be?  Well, it was more an effort of a posse of friends and acquaintances and a lack of intelligence on the part of the thief.  In the end he made an appointment to meet one of Gary's friends at a night club where Gary's partner, Kibo had arranged the sting. The police who apparently had to be paid to attend the occasion took the man into custody.  It was midnight last Saturday night when my phone rang.  It was Kibo.  "We got him", he said.  I had just fallen asleep so as my heart pounded outside of my chest (don't you hate the phone ringing late night making you jump out of your skin?).  Kibo explained he had arranged the sting and that Amir was now in custody.  "There has to be money left, Tom", Kibo said.  "OK, OK, what happens now"? I asked.  Kibo said he would contact me again but it was important to act quickly in getting with the detective (remember Winnie Britha?) to issue a search warrant and to move for an extradition of Amir back to Arusha.  Instead of feeling relieved or happy I felt kind of sick.  I had all but given up and filed the whole miserable episode in the recesses of my mind.  Now, instead of accepting the fate of the money being gone I had to consider "What if there is money left?  How much could it be?  What is going to happen to Amir in the Tanzanian justice and police system"?

On Monday Gary asked to see me so we could put a plan of action into place.  I needed to contact the new detective as Winnie Britha was now in a university course and no longer the detective assigned to the case.  Instead, a man by the name of Leonard was overseeing the file.  Gary had sent Leonard a text earlier that morning and had not yet heard back from him.  I attempted to phone and it was so stressful trying to speak in a way that he understood who I was, where I was calling from, and what case I was even talking about.  "Who are you"? he kept asking.  "What is this about?  What do you want"?  "I want my damn money back" is all I could think.  He disconnected the call 3 times in utter frustration with me.  Stress.  Gary ranted about how horrible things are here and how one has to stay on people or nothing will be accomplished.  I began to feel equal stress from my company as I did from my phone calls.  In the end I sent Leonard a text asking him to call the Dar es Salaam police along with my case number filed with Winnie in Arusha.  It was up to Leonard to ask for a search warrant of Amir's place and that did not happen until the next day.

Gary told me Kibo had personally spent 110,000 Tsh (nearly $85) in the course of trying to apprehend Amir in payments to the police and perhaps others who helped arrange meeting Amir at the night club.  This was news to me.  Gary went on to suggest that in order to expedite Amir's return to Arusha I would have to pay 30,000 Tsh for Leonard to make the bus trip (up to 11 hours) to Dar es Salaam and then pay about 70,000 Tsh for both Leonard and Amir to return to Arusha.  "You might want to through in another five or ten bucks so they can grab lunch, too."  Gary said.  I was speechless.  I am robbed of $1,500/2,000,000 Tsh and I have to pay the transport costs of the crook back to Arusha and for the detective to go fetch him.  "Gary", I said, "I am living on $75/100,000 Tsh every week-to-ten-days.  I don't just have a bunch of money sitting around to start paying for justice--particularly since I don't know if any of my money will be returned"!  I started shutting down. "Yes, but this is what has to be done in order to get Amir back here to face the charges".  MORE STRESS!  I told Gary I would be in touch with the detective and think about what to do.

I had decided the night before suddenly that I hadn't been sleeping well since I arrived at the center so asked Gary if he knew of a place I could buy a piece of foam to put on top of the two HARD pieces of foam on which I currently sleep--or not.  I drove us downtown (I swear to drive here is maniacal!) to a shop where various firmness and sizes of foam were sold.  It would cost me nearly $80 for a piece of foam roll and I walked out of the shop as quickly as I walked in.  When a shop keeper sees white skin the price increases exponentially!  "I've slept on it for this long, I can keep sleeping on it as it is"!

After dropping Gary downtown I went back to the center to teach my 1:00 class.  Fast forward: the search warrant that allowed Kibo to search Amir's house (can you imagine?) produced zilch.  This case is closed for me.  Amir will be sent back to Arusha to face the charges and probably be locked up for a number of years here.  Sad, sad, sad.  My friend Paul's girlfriend is the prosecuting attorney in Arusha so she is gathering information and keeping me posted.  She also said my paying for transporting the accused is rubbish.

Kibo sent me a text asking if I could kindly pay him for his sleuthing services by giving the money to Gary who was short of money for the month and owed Kibo a debt.  I was busy in the office and my intent was to send Kibo an email suggesting I was on a rather tight budget due to a robbery where I had lost $1,500 and that I couldn't pay this unexpected debt but that I would get to it ASAP.  The next day Gary showed up at the gate of the center asking for the money.  I was furious.  Gary left without the money, I told him future contact on the issue would be between Kibo and myself and proceeded in to my office to write a long overdue email to Gary summarizing my feelings of the past nearly two months.  On Caroline's advice I saved the email and did not send it.  Good advice.

As I continue my work here at the center I learn more and more about the students I serve.  Their stories are heart wrenching and indicative of the human condition here in Tanzania and throughout Africa.  Many of the students have lost at least one parent and in some cases both parents to AIDS.  Some are as young as 17 and live as orphans in conditions not suitable for human beings.  One girl is a favorite of mine.  She has a smile that would light up a dark night.  She is so sweet and shy and I love, because of this, to always call on her in class to see her drop her head with that smile of hers.  Caroline is in the midst of interviewing the students to determine what they want to do in the next phase of their development whether it is returning to school, vocational training or employment.  Deborah is 17, an orphan and now lives in a compound as a house girl washing clothes by hand and feeding the needs of up to 30 people with their daily needs.  This also includes cooking 3 meals a day and cleaning the various residences in the compound.  She sleeps at midnight or so and rises before 0600 every single day.  She comes to school for 4 hours and goes home to continue her duties.  For this life Deborah earns 20,000 Tsh or about $15 per MONTH.  When she smiles I could cry.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't think of bringing her home with me someday.  All she wants to do is finish school; she will with the centers assistance.  Her story is not unique.  It is the tragedy of life here.  Poverty, violence, rape, serious-culturally-deep rooted gender inequality round out what these young people live with every single day.  But, amazingly, you would never know it.  They arrive to the center up beat, laughing with each other, boys taunting girls, arm-in-arm, mostly on time and ready to learn as much as possible.  Some arrive an hour early and don't leave until 1800/6:00PM.  They have nothing to eat all day except for a package of cookies they share between two students.  This, for example, is what funding for the center could do; buy a meal for each student.

Yesterday was our HIV testing day for all students.  They have gone through one round and yesterday was the mandatory 3 month second round verification test.  We partnered with another NGO to do the testing and for about just over $40 all 40 students were tested.  We couldn't have been more happy and relieved with the results as it seems to buck the trend and statistics.  Poor Caroline was a wreck until the tests were finished.  Condoms were handed out after a nearly hour long lecture and Q&A on HIV/AIDS, proper use of condoms and vaginal dams, etc.  Talk about having no fear!  The students were up asking questions that made my head spin.  There is no fear among this group.  Naturally, the ladies (some as young as 14) were more shy and reserved but the guys just jumped right on in.  I love these people.  In the midst of hardship and strife they are out there trying to get by and do it like there is no tomorrow.  When one student replied he thought HIV was a death sentence the facilitator said "What makes you think something else won't kill you tomorrow long before you would die of HIV/AIDS"?  The student sat down.

Today Caroline and I went to the District Council Headquarters for a meeting of NGOs on the upcoming World AIDS Day to be held on 1 December 2009.  The meeting was a planning session to iron out what will be necessary for the event to be well attended and the message conveyed.  The 0900 meeting started at 1000 because no one from the council was present.  There was no knowledge by anyone else in the building of any such meeting scheduled so Caroline and I went for a coffee at the Naaz Hotel where I also had a bite to eat.  When we arrived back to the HQ we did find the meeting just beginning.  A big lady dressed in the most outlandish, colorful floral print outfit with gold fringe, short pig tails and painted brows passed out the minutes from the previous meeting while the chair of the meeting, a short elder man in a nice jacket sat ceremoniously at the head table in the center high back swivel chair.  The meeting lasted more than 3 hours and was the biggest waste of time I'd ever spent.  Here is a representative of local government asking (mostly) poorly funded NGOs how much they were willing to pay for the privilege to participate in the event.  Mind you, the worldwide event is in about one month and nothing to date has been coordinated because this is how Africa operates.  Only when everyone else ponies up the funds will the local government then offer what they can despite the fact it is a city event sponsored by them.  It was laughable and I guess kind of sad to because it is indicative of far greater inadequate governance issues.  My friend Diane would say "TAB"!  Which translates to "that's Africa, baby"!  It will take generations to change the inefficiency here but progress can begin with, for example, 40 young people.

When I teach my English speaking class with the intermediate speakers, I like to have open discussion in class where the students can talk about issues they are interested in.  One student wanted to talk about creationism versus science.  WOW!  He gave his theory of how the sun split open and particles created other stars and the bigger pieces fell to Earth (so Earth was already here?) and the larger pieces went deeper to the center of the planet and then I started getting lost, but he just kept right on going.  It was brilliant!  The conversation turned to HIV/AIDS, sex and wow, again, they just kept on going with it.  We talked about love, about women not being able to approach men in their culture and that a women who expressed love toward a man would be considered a prostitute.  Ugh.  I asked a girl to get up and do a role play with me.  I told the class the scene takes place at the out door market.  I whispered in her ear "Say I love you, Tom" and she did.  I asked the class if they heard this what they would think?  Prostitute was the response, again.  I said but how do you know?  They replied "it would depend on how long she knew you".  I asked if they had ever heard about love at first sight?  They had not.  I asked if they felt it was possible to court for a short time?  They did not.  I was thrilled to tell them about my parent's love story, naturally with a caution about the implications of this happening today.  A girl who brought a boy home (boy friend or just friend) would be beat by her father or family members so courting is done on walks or secret rendezvous. Sadly, this is a culture where women have it beyond tough.  Women, because of their lack of rights are not able to talk with their partners about safe sex or the use of condoms and that is why women are so effected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.  I could get into more graphic information but will leave that for discussions with whoever is interested when I come home.  I have learned so much!

After nearly 4 weeks of back and forth emails I have decided--with a heavy heart--to take a volunteer position with a US organization called PACT in Lusaka, Zambia.  I've had a phone interview with the program director who sounds like a great lady.  Talk about small world, she, too, spent some time at Santa Clara University, my alma mater.  She has been in development work for 15 years and I know I will learn a lot from her.  I will be working on a project called Y-CHOICES an HIV/AIDS program targeting Zambian youth.  The project aims to encourage family discourse on the subject which is not necessarily easy when cultural norms don't support such discourse.  I will be working with local partners mentoring them as the PACT program scales down.  There will be opportunities to do community outreach and some writing and I do have to say it is exactly the kind of work and the kind of organization I want to do.  My first step and my first breakthrough into working for a large NGO.  I arrive on 6 November and on 8 November leave Lusaka for the rural parts of the country to meet local partner organizations and do the work I dream of doing.  I am thrilled.  However, to start this means I have to leave Caroline and the Umoja Center.  I am so thankful for my time here and for all that I have learned and accomplished in a short time.  It will always be my history; where I started and where I wrote my first funded funding proposal.  It will hold a special place in my heart.  Good byes have never been my strong suit.

I continue working toward registering The Umoja Center in the US so that fund raising can be carried out there.  I will also be filing for a tax exempt status for non profits allowing contributions/donations to be tax deductible to the donor.  We just achieved this through an organization in Australia so things are proceeding well.  I have a lot to accomplish and complete before heading out next Friday for Zambia.  We are in full swing to gather and interview prospective students for the next/second term at the center to begin in January.  I will be looking for some of you who are interested to be board members for The Umoja Center USA if any of you have the desire to become involved in this project let me know.

I spent a fantastic Sunday last week with Paul, Suzanne, Caroline and Paul's sister, Cathy out for lunch at the coffee plantation restaurant outside of town.  It is a lovely venue surrounded by gardens and trees and accommodations.  It was a beautiful day to be outside with a coll breeze blowing.  We continued our day for a "sundowner" (happy hour) at the Karama Lodge where we were able to get a glimps of Mt Kilimanjaro in the distance.  Caroline and I stopped at Nicks Pub so I could eat some kuku and chips (chicken and fries).  We had a beautiful, heartfelt conversation with each other.

This past week has provided the most amazing rain showers--and I mean showers!  The dust is gone but in place of it is mud making some of the mostly dirt roads impassible.  I still prefer it to the dirty dust blowing everywhere.  The air is clean and the dry brown grasses and plants are beginning to show signs of revival.  The rains have brought out the bugs or maybe I should say have brought in the bugs, to the house, that is.  The strangest and most curious thing is that beetles are landing on the balcony outside the kitchen and somehow getting themselves turned upside down so we have a cemetery of beetles on the balcony.  I am not sure if they are just not the sharpest fliers in the insect world or what but each morning about 5 or 6 BIG beetles are on their backs--dead.  The rains also bring out the moths and it is extraordinary to look out from the balcony into the back garden after the rain has ended and see thousands of moths flying.  The birds and, yes, even the dogs, Dizzy and Benji, have a field day picking them off.  The mysteries of nature.  The ants seem to have subsided but the mosquitoes are out in force.  They are so big you hear them before you can ever see them.  There is a carpenter bee that has burrowed a hole into a beam outside my room and I hear him/her depart and arrive everyday; it has to be the size of a dollar coin..bigger?  I hope to be able to get a picture of it's pure black body with a white stripe across it's back.  I have planted a bunch of seeds in the garden and I am pleased to say everything is growing quite well.  I have taken some of the large 5 liter water bottles I consume, cut the tops away, filled them with dirt and planted seeds in them as well.  I felt like a kid doing a science project and proud not to be just throwing the bottles away.

Life is a rich blessing and I am so thankful for this learning, life changing experience.  Thanks for reading and I hope you learn something from it, too.

Kwa here!

A $10,000.00 Day

First, I can't believe 10 days have passed since I have written.  I have thought to write each day or evening but found a stack of National Geographic DVDs in my living space left by someone who was here before me and have enjoyed "dinner and a movie" quite happily for at least the last week.  In addition to this I've enjoyed some British TV on DVD including the likes of Agatha Cristie's Mystery! series Midsomer Mystery, Poirot and Miss Marple.  Love those shows and how they play out!  Thanks to Caroline for the use of her collection.

Where to begin?  Last Thursday Caroline came downstairs in the morning when she arrived and asked "Tom are you up"? through my open windows.  I was and opened the door.  She had news: someone was planning to visit the center on the following Monday.  And not just anyone.  Someone was coming from the Planet Wheeler Foundation to do a site visit at the Umoja Center!  Wow.  This was big news.  The Planet Wheeler Foundation was created by the Wheeler Family in Australia after the family sold what is referred to as the "travelers' Bible" the Lonely Planet Guide.  Here they were in Arusha and they were going to pay us a visit on Monday.  "Let's get busy, we have work to do"! Caroline exclaimed.

I have been spending time working on a funding proposal for our "wishes of wishes" really since I arrived here.  That project morphed to be specific to finding funding for additional computers for the 2010 class which we plan to increase from 40 students this year to 80 next year.  I shifted focus from the computers to work on a public relations/marketing piece about the center that we could give to the foundation when they visited.  The beauty about the work I am doing now is that nearly everything I write for one proposal can be manipulated to create another piece of work.  I am finding while doing this work the effort is greatest at the start when things have to be created but once something is done it can become your next project piece.  I love that.

I really worked hard (I can't call writing work!) putting together the proposal and everything I thought of just came out onto the key board so effortlessly.  Amazing how rewarding and satisfying things can be when you enjoy doing them!  By Saturday the document was nearly ready and Caroline took it home to proof it and add her 2 cents to it.  By Sunday Caroline was out running around town having color copies made, having the document bound and prepared for the foundation visitor.  For comparison sake, one copy of the color and bound 19 page piece cost over $20US to produce at one of the few color printer/copy businesses in town.  I spent the day at the center organizing and cleaning my living space and directing a student Caroline hired to do a "deep clean" of the center from top to bottom.  My efforts moved upstairs to the office and before I knew it I was sweeping and dusting and getting things in order.  Let me tell you, it needed it bad!  Nothing like reveling in a clean space.

I put the books we hauled from Usa River on the shelves and I can say our little library really looks the part.  We now have four large proper book shelves (thanks to a student who is a carpenter) fully stocked, cataloged by the Dewey Decimal System ala Caroline and James, a student hired to assist.  We placed students' work (art, poetry, papers written on human rights and life skills) on the walls along with posters we have accumulated on issues like anti-corruption, human anatomy, public announcements on HIV/AIDS, gender equality and even an Australian tidal pool poster and pictures of sea creatures found off the Australian Coast.  Though not relevant to anything we do, and destined for the trash by someone else, I found the color in them better than the dreary painted cement walls.  Caroline gave me a bad time saying "Oh I see you have your Dog Whelk and Periwinkle up" (two pictured sea creatures on one of the posters).  I told her it was all about color.  Ironic that I am the color blind one.  The posters hang in the kitchen.

I have to say Sunday felt like one of those I had when I was in high school after throwing a BIG party that I was not suppose to have--cleaning furiously before my parents arrived home from a trip to Lake Tahoe.  There was a real sense of need to get things in order so that when our visitor arrived things would be looking smart with things in their place.

Caroline was beside herself all morning on Monday anticipating Mark's arrival.  I kept saying "just relax, I can talk, I don't mind this stuff" and she seemed to feel a little more reassured.  About 5 minutes before his arrival I said "I CAN'T DO THIS"! and Caroline just about fell out of her chair.  I had a good laugh.

Mark arrived shortly after 1300 and we gave him a tour of the center.  He was such a cool guy!  Not a bad job flying around the world giving money away, huh?  He engaged with the students asking questions about their projects on the computers and asked the beginners' class as they talked about gender equality "Who speaks better English the guys or the girls"?  The guys replied "The guys do" and the girls also replied "The guys do"!  Gender equality has along way to go in Tanzania!  I could tell Mark was full of information and we had a short but productive Q&A during his 45 minute-or-so visit.  I presented him with our "work of art" and sent him on his way (to Rwanda that evening) for yet another leg of his journey wishing him safe travels.

Within 10 minutes of his departing, Caroline's mobile rang.  At first I thought there was something terribly wrong as I watched the color drain from her face and and tears come to her eyes.  "Can you repeat exactly what you just said again, please"?  She asked the caller.  Then it was clear to me she was speaking to Mark.  It had nothing to do with the Planet Wheeler Foundation but instead it was Mark offering a $10,000.00 gift to the center from his own family's foundation!  I can tell you we danced, we sang, we cheered, we cried ourselves around the office for not just minutes but the rest of the afternoon.  The students helped us cheer and one could have probably heard us all the way out to Njiro Road!  SUCCESS!  In fact, my first proposal and my first donation.  Indeed, it was the first foundation gift for the center as well.  I like this work.

Caroline, Joseph (the Tanzanian English teacher) and I split at 1700 and went down to the Njiro Complex to Boogaloo Bar to celebrate!  We actually stayed for a few hours laughing and summing up the work and the excitement of success.  Joseph and I shared a "goat arm" which Caroline (a vegetarian) and I always have such a laugh over because naturally, goats don't have arms--only legs, but the menu offers goat "arm".  A couple of plates of "chips" or french fries and we were all happy.  A very drunk Mozambiquan gentleman walked to our table and invited himself to join us.  What can you say?  We invited him to sit with us.  His English was not very good as Mozambique is a former Portuguese colony so English is not the second language there.  He repeated many times "very nice, very nice" and "I'm going to say something very special" (which he never did) and used his hands more than any Italian I know!  The guy was funny but also very inebriated.  I lipped to Caroline "hurry up with you beer and lets go".  She did while I fetched the check and we were on our way back home.

Monday ended with the most amazing rain storm.  It poured buckets and I enjoyed the sound of the rain, the fresh air and watching the dirt being flushed away from the patio.  I called it a night.

This day rocked!

Usa River and A Warp Speed Week

I can't believe it is Friday night and this week has come to a very, very fast close.  Very happy it is the weekend as, save for the asakris (guards), there will be an opportunity to sleep in tomorrow!

I wanted to write about last Saturday and my first trip to Usa River.  Caroline fetched me at about 1000 and we set out for the 45 minute drive down the Nairobi/Moshi Highway (read: road corridor of death) toward Moshi and Usa River.  I don't really know what can be said for this road to adequately describe how insanely bad it is.  It is a two land road with no directional division stripe so you can find at varying points cars overtaking semi trucks with traffic having to pull off so the overtaking car can finish his maneuver.  The packed-beyond-capacity dala dala's dart into traffic from their stops at the side of the road (it could be anywhere and is random where the dala dalas stop) to cram more human life into the volkswagen-type mini vans.  I have been on a dala dala now three times not by choice but out of economy.  The dala dala can run me 30 cents while a taxi will run between $7-$10 each way to town.

Our day to Usa was to include a stop at St Jude's School, Usa Campus to collect some books that were no longer required for the expansive library of the new $12 million St Jude's School Usa Campus complex and library and best of all, an afternoon at a lodge swimming pool and lunch.

The campus at Usa River shows one what money can buy.  Very well funded, to say the least, St Jude's operates two campuses in the Arusha area (the other is in Moshona nearer to where I am in Njiro) providing free education to the brightest of the poor--some 1200 in all.  The multi-acre campus is surrounded by concrete walls and a huge gate.  Signs from the "Tanzania Highway 2" welcome visitors to the compound and indicate where to turn and how much further you have to travel before arriving.  Big place.  Multi-story buildings with windows, electricity, water, proper toilets for students, a music room, the fantastic library I mentioned, green, well watered grass, playgrounds; it is a real school in an area where water is available and it shows in the lush green vegetation surrounding the school inside the walls and out.

Margie, a lovely Australian lady, is the librarian.  We coincidentally ran into she, her husband Ian and another colleague Gordon and joined them the weekend before for lunch at the Njiro Complex.  While we were talking about what I was doing for outreach to collect resources for our library at Umoja Margie told us she was in the midst of her processing her own collection of books and was able and willing to get rid of quite a lot of books.  Caroline and I said immediately, "taken"!

It was like Christmas.  There was an entire section of the library being staged for the processing and sorting of books and there were selves and shelves and shelves (you get the point) of books.  Margie, seemed almost embarrassed by the quality, age, condition and selection of the books but Caroline and I were beaming!  We started at separate ends of the shelves and worked toward one another pulling books from the shelves.  Margie had already taken her favorite picks for us.  We ended taking 9 boxes of books, book sets, atlases, animals of Australia (all books were sourced from Australia.  St. Jude's founder is Australian), books for girls, boos for boys, dictionaries...it was so incredible for us to have this opportunity to fill the shelves of our little (spare bedroom) library!  We made arrangements to return this Saturday for more!

We bemoaned the fact the weather was not clearing as it expeditiously dos each Monday through Friday and now that it was Saturday and we had out suits with us we were choosing not to pay the pool charge to enjoy just mediocre weather.  Instead we stopped at River Tree's Lodge for lunch.  What a beautiful 10 acre retreat with proper, beautifully appointed accommodations, beautiful gardens, vegetables growing and monkeys in the trees.  We had a great lunch.  I hesitantly ordered fish and chips thinking about what I would expect such an order to look and taste like and worried it wouldn't be that way!  It was awesome.  Caroline must have thought me so strange all I could say and do was talk about my damn fish.  Mom, I got it from you!  We had a great meal together and even better conversation (fantasy?) about having a multi-acre compound for the Umoja Center.  We went on-and-on about accommodating traveling volunteers, dormitories for students and proper classrooms.  I thought about becoming a real fundraiser.

We made it back from Usa River to keep up our commitment to walking the dogs (Dizzy and Benji) around the neighborhood.  We have motivated each other to keep up on this small amount of exercise but nonetheless something.  The dogs love it and already now expect it each night by 1730.

I dala dala'd into town for a quick trim at Ali's.  He arranged for his driver to take me back to Njiro now that it was already dark after dropping him the Aga Khan Mosque only about 5 minutes in the opposite direction.  BAM!  We were rear ended on the Dodoma Road.  Ugh.  Another shaky moment making me realize just how edgy things are here.  The driver who hit us didn't even get out of his car as everyone else stuck in traffic started screaming "he hit you, he hit you"!  "Lets just get the hell out of here", I thought.  Willie, the driver got out of the car, surveyed the damage, got back in, put it in gear and on to the mosque we went.  The rest of the ride to Njiro was uneventful, thank God.

Sunday was a quiet day alone at the center blogging, emailing and checking websites for funding.

Monday came and the speed by which the week days speed by boggles my mind!  I love my 3 hours per week teaching English speaking classes.  I have the students ask each other questions, answer them, make a follow up, role play conversations and I just leaving each class with the most satisfying feeling and a huge smile on my face.  Sponges; each and everyone of them just wants so desperately to learn, to better their life.  Each has a dream of becoming someone, something and earn a living wage in the country they love.  I must say we have a pretty good rapper, an acrobat, artist, carpenter, DJ and wanna be 'chief chef', electrical engineer, nurses, secretaries, lawyer for women's rights (I could shed a tear or two over how this lady makes me feel with her desire to improve the lot of women in Tanzania) and teachers, teachers, teachers.  The intermediate speakers ask adolescent questions like "who is your girlfriend?" or "how many babies do you want to have?" and everyone laughs as those asked the questions  blush and cover their heads.  Sweet.  The beginners on the beginners, on the other hand, stick with the standard questions, "where did you go yesterday?" and "what will you buy at the market?"  One girl seems as though she will wiggle right out of her skin when I call on her.  Now fourteen, she never finished primary school.  She struggles and is overcoming her shyness and remedial level showing more confidence everyday.  Love, love, love, this!

My weekdays are pretty standard in the office or classroom during the day with the exception of tagging along with Caroline for an errand or two.  After the dog walking I cook dinner, which I might add are quite the little culinary creations.  Thank God for onion and garlic!  I am eating rice and beans twice a day (oh, I can hear some of you laughing at me now) with vegetables and occasionally some meat (goat, lamb--I've given up the beef it could cause dental damage it is so tough) or chicken.  Lettuce comes wilted and dirty so I have to reconstitute it in the pot of cold water in the refrigerator.  Sometimes it comes back to life and others, well it goes in the bin. When it works I have a salad.  You can buy avacado here for about 20 cents each.  The other food, however, is not cheap.  Another reality byte:  Africa is not cheap.  Food is becoming more scarce and prices are going up (how people living on less than $1US per day are going to get by I do not know.  The World Food Program UNWFP is running out of money and things will take a turn for the worse before things get better).  I do live on about $75 per week all in but I am buying only food, eating out once or twice per week and trying to buy things like beans and rice that go along way.

On Wednesday Caroline suggested we go to the New Arusha Hotel for a couple of hour poolside meeting and attitude adjustment break.  I obliged her and (very happily) went along.  Ah, lounging has not been part of my program here and I realize how much I miss it.

I arrived back to the center with the power out for the first time in a couple (maybe a few) weeks.  I pulled some pork from the freezer earlier to cook up on the gas camper stove by battery operated lantern-light.   I really do have my groove down in the kitchen, love cooking and listening to my iTunes but on this night my little finger got in the way of the rather big blade of the knife.  I knew right away I had done it and ran some water over the cut which bled more than the severity of the cut warranted I thought.  I held my thumb tightly on the cut and it did not bleed because of the pressure I applied.  I even went back to cutting, casually thinking about finding a band-aid.  I grabbed a couple of napkins and as soon as I removed my thumb the blood came.  I wrapped my finger in the napkins and it bled through right away.  I put some gauze on top of the napkins and that also soaked through.  More gauze and then it happened; I started getting light headed.  "You have to be joking" I thought.  Then the sweat came.  "You really have to be joking".  I don't know if I have ever passed out before (excluding being young, foolish and drinking too much) but there I was spinning and sweating and thinking "time to sit on the floor".  I reached for my phone and tried to call Caroline thinking how stupid I felt; no car, no electricity, no emergency services and a bloody finger and light head!  When I got my head back together I got up, put the pork away, took a pain pill for my throbbing finger and went to bed.

Yesterday was a really satisfying day.  Caroline and I took a student to an interview process with another NGO focusing on training young people in the hospitality industry including a 3 month internship to learn on the job training.  I met Kim (Dutch) through some other Dutch friends I was introduced to living here by my friends in Amsterdam.  Kim started Jobortunity and this was her first prospective pool of students for the program.  Zabby was pretty excited about the opportunity to chase his dream of being a chef and he was spot on in the process where nearly 50 willing applicants attended group interview and team building.  He received the highest marks on the math test and was the one in the crowd raising his hand or moving to the front of the crowd.  Caroline was like a proud mother fighting back tears.  Really wonderful to see what we do can move us as it does.  We met representatives from other NGOs who brought candidates for the interview while sitting under a garden gazebo over "tea and biscuits".  The chief of the Moivaro area was also there having brought 35 young people from his community.  We met "Mama Hindu"a lovely Tanzanian lady who has the Center for Women and Children Development.  She encourages "Masai families to send their children to school rather than to fetch water".  It is wonderful to keep meeting people everyday with opportunities to partner on services and ideas to help in our related and not related fields.

We left an elated Zabby back at the junction of the death road and the Moivaro cutoff which is about 30 minutes by car from the Umoja Center.  Some kids ride a bike for more than an hour to get to school  Pretty amazing!  Caroline and I beamed with pride at how alive Zabby was after this experience and the hope it gave him to really pursue something worthwhile in his life  I told him I would love to cook with him!  We took our dog walk whichis so nice at the end of the day with the African sun setting.  I greet everyone we pass and Caroline has to laugh at me.  "You are the meeter and greeter, aren't you Tom", she says.  I think people love it.  I'm trying to soften the neighborhood a bit.

I was able to get the pork meal complete without incident on this night, took a shower and was ready for Caroline to pick me up to join Paul for "just one" at Nick's Pub and then on to Via-Via for the big Thursday night bash (a bash on Thursday night?  What about work on Friday?).  There was a great African band playing some good guitar and synthesized metal drums.  It sounded a cross between Caribbean music and Hawaiian music.  Everyone was grooving to the sounds.  A bunch of volunteers at the center who stay at the local hostel met us and we had quite a group of people together.  The band finished and the party moved outside to the open air dance floor where a DJ played progressively younger and younger music as the night crept along.  I persuaded Paul at 0300 to take me home; Caroline was cutting loose and still on the dance floor!  She needed and certainly was worthy of cutting loose for the night.

Despite the late night I had a really productive day in the office (alone) listening to classical music and then to the likes of Den Martin, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and others making me think of my folks all day.  I startedt he application process to get the Umoja Center registered for non-profit status in the USA and a request to an Irish NGO that supplies refurbished computers to organizations like Umoja (I hope!!).

I love that I got this written!  I learned today that a lot of my address book did not receive the link to my blog so if you think of anyone you would like to send it along to or someone I forgot please do so!

I received some horrible news from a friend I went through training with at Alaska yesterday evening.  Tracia Johnson lost her husband JJ in a car accident yesterday.  Tracia and JJ have 2 daughters and had a life ahead of them of happiness and joy.  Life is so fragile and can be tragically changed in a moment.  Please keep my friends in your hearts and thoughts.  My heart breaks for Tracia and all those who loved JJ.

Good night everyone.

A Great Place to Stay in Amsterdam!

When I was in Amsterdam over a month ago I helped my best buddy and Dutch brother, Ronald, celebrate his 50th birthday.  It was a party to remember.  I was able to see my friends together in one place for the first time in many years.  Some of my friends in Holland I have had the pleasure of knowing for more than 20 years!  My friend's Janny and Ronald de Hoog own a beautiful hotel in central Amsterdam, just a stone's throw from the Leidseplein Square.  I told them when I got my web page up and going I would put a link up to their place--except the web page is now a blog.  So, keeping true to my word, if you are looking for a beautiful place to stay while visiting Amsterdam check out www.dtfh.nl.  Enjoy your visit to my favorite city!

Must Write More Often

Its Sunday, in the afternoon.  (Colleen, that is for you!).  A great breeze is blowing through the curtains whipping up papers on the desks; there are a lot of papers for the wind to catch (note to self, get through it this week).  Beautiful (on the hot side) spring day here in Njiro District.  The gate outside the window that separates the front yard from the dog enclosure isn't latched and it creaks, compliments of the wind, too.  Can't move on without mentioning the dust.  It is so dry and dusty the wind is finally, doing a great job helping to make everything dirty--always.  At any rate, its a lovely, peaceful day around a place that is normally buzzing with 45 people every Monday through Friday.

I woke up to the askari's speaking (shouting outside my window) this morning while it was still dark.  Ugh.  They are either deaf or should have been born into a loud Jewish family.  Even though they share the all-night guard duty they are always up just before the sun and always, it seems to be, just outside my window.  What are they doing having a debriefing about the nights' watch?  Paolo is Masai so it makes sense; to bed with the moon and up with the sun.

The last few days have been packed full of writing for the center, running errands in town and socializing.

Spontaneously, Caroline and I went to Boogaloo on Thursday after work.  We had a couple of Kili's in us by the time Paul arrived with a colleague of his named Bernie.  They had eaten dinner together on the other side of the complex.  Bernie (Bernadette) was such a pleasure to meet!  Irish, but having lived in London for the past 30 years, she is now here in Arusha working for the Archdiocese of Arusha.  She is a hoot.  I kept looking across the table and seeing Kay Harrison and thought the whole time how Dick and Kay should meet Bernie someday.  Bernie has been involved with social justice issues in London for decades including the right to a livable wage and community advocacy.  She is a registered nurse and works for the church building capacity in the health care sector including clinics, hospitals, pharmacies.  She had the most classic jokes to say about some of the most classic, hysterical subjects.  Thoroughly enjoyable and slightly intoxicating evening with these friends.  I came home with a cooked kuku and devoured most of it before bed.  Something about drinking that does that to me.

Paying for it on Friday was the drag.  Ah, I didn't feel so bad but I can always tell when I have done it the night before.  I did a couple of hours on the funding proposal and then Caroline and I set out with a student, James, with us, to go for a home visit to meet  his mother, bring word to her about how exceptionally well her 19 year old son is doing in school.  It had been a good week for James; he scored well on his exam and that morning been voted by his peers to be the class representative.  He was beaming on the drive to his house.  If everyone could see this smile you would smile for the rest of the day, too.

We hadn't been off Njiro Road (the main road to town) for more than 2 minutes when James said "this is a bad area.  Do not walk here alone ever".  Good advice from the local guy who said he wouldn't even walk through there at night alone.  The area was rife with robberies gone bad and homicide.  "Yikes", I thought.  I see this area whenever I go into town and bad stuff goes down there, "so close, too close", I thought.  We drove on dirt for about 10 minutes through rough road with deep erosion veining through it from side to side.  We turned down a narrow alley between mud structures--one of them a shop.  The alley led to a large open barren area with a few trees and kids running around everywhere.  Somewhat in the middle is a water faucet for fetching water.  A chicken ran around and clothes hung drying in the breeze.  "Mazungu", I could hear come from one of the dozens of kids out,  "mazungu", there it is again, I thought.  "Mazungu" there it was again coming from the now crowd of little kids ranging in age from toddlers to early teen.  A ball held together with string, rubber bands and God knows what else is being kicked back and forth between the kids with no sense of order or right to a turn for the youngest ones.

A lady came to the door when she saw James get out of the car.  She was beaming saying "Karibu!  Karibu!  "Karibu! ("you are welcome") to us as we approached the door.  We were invited into a small room made of mud and sticks with a corrugated tin room.  The lady of the house had the place looking immaculate!  The room, in addition to one more attached to it, was home to James' family of seven.  His father was out working in a restaurant in the Serengeti National Park so Mom was home keeping things keeping on.  There was a TV, a small stereo/boom box and a small ice box.  The walls were covered completely from floor to ceiling with sheer, see-through (is that what sheer means, duh) material.  Everything in the house was covered with this material, too.  There was a bed and some benches (all covered as well and a coffee table, too.  Some colorful and glittery plastic flowers sat int he middle of the coffee table.

James interpreted the message Caroline was delivering about James' success in school, his abilities, his and Caroline's desire that he remain in school and continue next year and his election as student rep that morning.  I can see where James gets his smile.  His mother was teeth from ear-to-ear. she was so excited she was wringing her hands between straightening her outfit.  The bad news was that James' dad was leaving work at nearly 60 in December of this year which makes James as the oldest son and his 22 year old sister obligated to help support the family.  We spent a few more minutes together and began to leave.  I took some amazing photography of the neighborhood kids and of James, his mom and Caroline.

Caroline and I stopped at Blue Heron for lunch.  I reclined into some pillows on a couch under a shady bush and we shared a vegetarian panini as the mid-afternoon sun started to raise the temperature.  We were on our way to a meeting with Dr Linus who sits on the board of the Umjoa Center.  Dr Linus is a respected doctor in the community working with and NGO called Society for International Change.  He does HIV/AIDS work there.  There was no reply from Dr Linus when Caroline called him to confirm time and place so she very quite non-chalantly said "He must of got it wrong".  "What?" I replied "the date, the time, the place"?  Caroline said "He could have gone to his village in the southern part of Tanzania or gotten the day wrong. who knows; it is like that here".  We agreed to just keep going on our schedule to some errands and back to the center.

Paul sowed up right around 1700.  "Must be time for sun-downers, " I thought.  Caroline was in an interview with a student about what next year looks like to the student in the office next door.  "Let's go, sun-downers!" Paul exclaimed.  He had a baseball cap on and I just had a laugh.  "He is so Norm from Cheers", I thought.  One day I am going slip up and call him Norm!  Such a good guy!

Caroline opted out of the sun-downer so Paul and I set out to the Backpackers Inn out by Shop Rite and right on the Dodoma Road.  Paul is good with the back road routes so we were across town in about 15-20 minutes taking the road around Themi Hill.  We had a great early evening beverage (just one!) watching the sun go down, the lights come up from the streets below our perch in the roof top bar and Mt Meru disappearing into the night.  We talked about plans for the Christmas holiday and where each of us thought we would end up.   A guy from LA named Seth came over, introduced his very-friendly-self to us ad we chatted for a bit.

Paul and I did CHINESE FOOD at the Everest Inn on Nyerere Road in Corridor.  It was the hottest beef and chili dish I have ever eaten and that is something for me to say!  I was mopping up the sweat from my brow and scalp as we drove home!  Paul dropped me at the Center and I had a great night sleep.  Ah, the weekend!

The Luckiest Guy in the World

The end of another day here in Arusha.  Dinner (rice and vegetables) is done and I am picking away at the key board so aware of the value of this computer and having an internet connection.  It truly is a window to the world.  And what makes me feel particularly happy at this moment is the love I am receiving from my friends and family around the world.  I can't tell you how it can change a ho-hum day into one where I feel so loved, blessed and happy.  Thanks!

I had a great weekend here.  Saturday evening, after a busy morning and afternoon running around, I went with Caroline to an NGO networking meeting.  Not the turnout nor networking I was hoping for but apparently there was some missed-communication about the venue for the meeting and I think a bunch of people gave up when they showed up at Via-Via and were asked to pay an entrance fee to an art exhibition.  Those of us that showed up together at the same time went to a Japanese restaurant called Sazan, though I learned people were calling it "container".  "Strange name" I thought.  Why in the world are they calling it container and not by it's name, Sazan?  The restaurant, I discovered when we arrived, is actually built in a shipping container.  There were some nice folks there I had not yet met (a couple from Australia who started an orphanage here) and Kim, a new friend from Holland who is here starting her own NGO, was there.  I had not seen Kim in a couple of weeks so it was good to catch up with her.  I just love the Dutch!

After a couple of hours of outdoor seating at the container, Caroline and I met Paul, a good guy from Ireland at the Blue Heron and we sat lazily under the trees; them nursing there beers and me, my club soda.  Gary joined us, too.  Blue Heron is such a cool place; a restaurant, bar, dance floor, shop with local wares all under the most amazing trees and in the midst of a beautiful garden.  At night, the garden is candle lit and filled with cushy chairs, couches and lounges.  It felt strange because the crowd was 95% mazungu (white foreigner) in the midst of black Africa.  Where was I?  It could have been anywhere in Southern California.  Very chill.  We hung out there for awhile and I was inspired to hit the dance floor a couple of times on my own.  It felt so good to dance!  Caroline decided to make it an early night.  We had planned to hit Masai Camp but she wasn't up for it.  Gary said he would like to go and since I had not yet been there and I was all dressed up....well, off into the night we went.

Masai Camp is a huge compound covering acres with outdoor seating around camp fires burning and people catching up with each other.  The circus is in Arusha so some of the performers were on hand to give everyone a taste of the circus.  There were contortionists, gymnasts, and a lady who was dressed in very little shaking her backside faster than the RPMs of a jet engine.  She would have been hauled in for indecent exposure where I am from.  The crowd loved her!  It was nearing 0200 and I was past my prime for the night; seriously.  Just before we left, a girl from the really young crowd came up to me and asked "were you at Blue Heron tonight?"  "Yes, I was." I replied.  "Wow, you're a great dancer!" she said.  I started to laugh (like I can) and said "not bad for an ole guy, huh?"  I could have been her father.  Yikes.

More interesting times on the drive home.  We got lost trying to reach the school and the comfort of my waiting bed.  One wrong turn is all it takes when you are on dirt roads and there are not lights.  Poor Gary, poor me.  We couldn't pull it together for over an hour and finally Gary said "can we just go to my house tonight?"  I thought to myself "why the hell did you wait so long to say that?"  Naturally, I was panicking at the thought of driving around at 0330 not knowing where we were.  the panic escalated when Gary said "I hope we don't run out of gas!" (read: when Gary says he hopes we don't run out of gas, we probably will).  Thankfully for my heart, we arrived at Gary's place and crashed!

Sunday was a real day of rest with the exception of having to launder my underwear in a bucket.  I am living a life of constant camping routines!  Camping to me is the way more than half the world's population lives their daily existence from birth to death.  I joined Caroline to the Njiro Complex for lunch and to debrief with her piking up her stuff at her ex's place hours before.  Glad to be there to listen to her.  We saw at the complex some folks Caroline had worked with at a school here in Arusha so we joined them for lunch.

A couple of hours later, Caroline went home and I joined Paul for one of his famous and regular "sun downers".  Paul is a great guy.  He is working for the Irish Pallottine Order of the Catholic Church here.  The priests are building a new hospital about 5 hours away form Arusha in a remote area of the country and Paul is serving as their project officer.  When I first arrived Paul had me flipping out about everything that could happen to a foreigner here, from robbery to germs to safety to proper security when using the ATM, etc., etc.  Caroline and I get such a kick out of him.  He is a lovely guy.  He kind of reminds me of Norm from "Cheers".  Always looking for someone to join him for his "sun downer" or even for a beer before sun down.  By-the-way, I learned keeping a small bottle of anti-bacterial hand sanitizer in the car is a great way to wash off all those germs you probably picked up after doing whatever you were doing "out there".  Thanks to Paul and his contentious way of going about things.  He has been a good friend here, taking me on a tour of town a couple of weeks ago and showing me where all the NGOs are in town.  He's provided me with an abundance of reading material and reference material to get me going on my job search.

The "sun downer" started at the Kamara Lodge outside of Arusha.  A beautiful hill top lodge with free standing huts amidst the trees and a breathtaking view of Mt Meru and far in the distance and still under all the haze Mt Kilimanjaro.  I really have yet to see Kili in the month I have been here!  Feeling a bit dehydrated I delved into a 1.5 liter of water after chugging a club soda.  Paul enjoyed his (several) "Kili bridi" (cold Kilimanjaro Beers).  We coincidentally met a few of the people who had been at the NGO networking meeting the night before so we had a drink with them, too.

"Kuku and chips?" Paul asked as we walked out of the Karama.  I felt like I was crawling.  It was now 2000 (8:00PM).  "OK" I thought.  I hadn't eaten since about 1300 at lunch.  I said "I'd like to be home and in bed by 2100.  Do you think we can do it?"  "No way" Paul said.  "OK, lets go anyway" I said.  We stopped at Paul's place to close up the curtains and windows and then headed to our favorite place for kuku (chicken) and chips (fries), Nick's Pub.  There we met a couple of Paul's friends and sat with them.  Paul continued with his Kili and I with my water.  I got home at 2200 and went directly to bed!  A good weekend for sure!

I had such a great time in class yesterday with the students.  While I want to get out of being the proverbial English teacher while I am abroad, I have to say having 3 hours of contact with these students per week is amazing.  They show up here everyday half an hour early and leave an hour late.  They are so wanting to change their lives with English and other education, some of them in their twenties with only primary level education.  They are so sweet.  I teach a speaking class and asked them "what did you do last weekend"? so that they could practice the past tense.  It was great; a struggle for many, but I could see they were into it and trying hard.  The day seemed to fly by.

I went to Gary's for dinner to meet a friend of his who flies for Air Tanzania.  I always thought doing aviation capacity building would be great fun and perfect for me with my background.  In the end Gary's friend canceled (he had his dates wrong) and was in Thailand for simulator training.  Gary and I cooked another feast together (Hartebeast stew) with rice.  God, we can do it right in the kitchen.  When we left for the drive back to my place (less than 10 minutes) the car died just outside the driveway.  We rolled back into the gate, closed it and I spent the night and walked home this morning!

I couldn't really get into my groove today.  I was tired having not slept well last night.  Caroline took me to an NGO that restores bicycles so I could get some two wheeled transportation for myself.  They hadn't had a delivery in some time so I opted to ride back with her to the center and wait for the next container (not the Japanese food place) to be delivered.  I've made good progress on a funding proposal I am writing for the center so that feels good.  I also received an email tonight from an organization in Zambia that has my resume and want to talk!  Great news!

OK, time for bed.  Good night world.

Nearly 4 Weeks in Tanzania and I Finally Arrived Today

I woke up this morning to a couple dozen of emails and Facebook postings from friends and family on my Blackberry.  The words were so meaningful, loving and supportive.  It came at a time when I was feeling a little defeated and down and immediately got me into the right head space.  "I am exactly where I need to be" I said out loud.

The weather is lovely today.  It continues to warm up and the sky is blue, albeit, with more than a hint of haze.  Although I was going into town with Caroline to the Masai Market and to meet a friend for lunch I threw on some shorts and a t-shirt.  Even planning what to wear and if-and-when- I would have time to come back to the school in Njiro to change (for this evening back in town) is a process.  This is what I am talking about when I say everything has to be strategized and well thought out when one is without transport.

I pulled a piece of cold chicken from the fridge, made my cup of Nestle instant coffee and went into the office to check email on the computer and back up my hard drive.  I played some instrumental guitar music on iTunes and got organized.

Caroline picked me up and off we went to town.  We had a vibrant, heartfelt discussion about me, her, the center, our dreams, our personal and professional hopes and the future.  Not being one to hold back (is this a blessing or a curse?) I delved right into what is happening in my mind about where I am, what I am doing, my fears, etc.  I told Caroline about how many wonderful offers of money and supplies for the center I had received already from some of the best friends and family a guy could ask for.  I told her I feel a little hesitant to fire up my crowd as I don't know if this is where I will end up and, in this kind of work (non-profit), you choose very carefully when and whom you ask for donations of any kind.  I want to be sure and committed to Caroline and the center before becoming a fund raising warrior (which, by-the-way, is on the best days and in the best economic times a tough job to have).  She gets it.  The fact does remain I can offer Caroline and the center a lot; as uch as she and the center can offer me focus and a project to run with.  Currently the center hasn't an American contact, bank account or fund raising activities so it would be a good partnership.

So, for those of you who know me, you know I can be rather intense when I get my mind set on something (I can hear more than a few of you laughing all the way over here in Tanzania!).  For me here, especially since my money was taken, that has created more urgency to find paying work.  I came here fully intending to volunteer for a time in order to build experience in the develop/ non-profit sector while certainly not giving up hope that a job would and could come from it.  I have been chasing myself around in my head filling my days with pressure and control over something on which I do not have a lot of control.  Sure I can continue to send out resumes (with or without tracking comments--hopefully without--thanks Kurt for offering your tech advice and assistance!!!), but as the day has gone on for me and I have come into contact with people I know I am doing exactly what I should be doing and I am exactly where I should be.

I went for a hair cut today just around the corner from the Masai Market.  Ali has a hair salon in his house,naturally behind a large, secure, solid iron fence.  The moment I walked in I felt this sense of relief.  I was welcomed by Ali who offered me a glass of water or tea and asked to sit down.  The Tabbie cat (oh, there are 2) immediately jumped on m lap.  While only still a kitten it was a bit aggressive about wanting to be loved and stroked.  I found there would be no way to sit down with this cat so I stood and walked around a bit while talking.

Ali (born in Dar es Salaam, third generation Tanzanian) is of Indian decent and lived in Vancouver, Canada where part of his family still lives.  I immediately knew I was going to like Ali.  He wore his hair up with a clip and is tattooed in many places; not your standard Tanzanian.  In his chair was the most beautiful, tall, blond woman.  Together they were having a grand old time laughing and talking about people and Ali's antics the night before.  I distinctively heard a Dutch accent from the lady, and as I always do when I hear that wonderful, familiar language asked "are you Dutch"?  She lit up!  "Well, yes, I am!" she said.  We introduced ourselves, talked about the other Dutch people we knew here in Arusha and listened to each others' stories.  Marion has been in TZ for 10 years with her husband and family propagating seeds and plants for export to Holland and on from there to North America.  Lovely, lovely, lady!!

Ali invited me to Masai Camp tonight where there is going to be live entertainment (perhaps a group from overseas, maybe dancers as well...?)  He assured me he would put me into contact with all the people he knew and in particular a lady from San Diego who runs an educational NGO here.  GREAT NEWS!  So, it was here at Ali's, at that moment, where I had my latest epiphany (they come and go, sometimes many times in the course of a day) thinking and even saying to Ali and Marion "I need to sit back, chill out and wait for things to happen here!"  They totally agreed.  "Tom," Ali said, "you are going to meet so many people in the kind of work you want to do.  Don't make any decisions so quickly!  You haven't even been here a month!"  Good advice from someone who has been here in Arusha for the past 16 years.  The universe provides.

I enjoyed lunch at the Naaz Hotel Restaurant with a lady I met a couple of weeks ago named Diane.  She is from Ontario.  We had such a nice visit.  It is so refreshing to meet people and find about about who they are and their life stories.  Diane is a principal who took leave, came to TZ to do something that "felt good" and ended up falling in love and now works for an NGO orphanage with it's board in the US.   We spent a couple of hours together where we enhoyed the first buffet I have eaten from in sometime.  You know, I think I hear more laughter all the way from the US again.  Beef, chicken, SALAD.  Ahhh, I would walk down the longest dusty road to eat there again.  And it only cost about $6.  Maybe I am feeling better today because I have eaten more protein today than I have in the past 3 weeks combined!  LOL!  Diane offered to take me on a walking tour of her side of Arusha next week and I gladly accepted.

Moody, the trusty taxi driver, gave me a lift back to the school.  He is a good kid, speaks excellent English and sends me kind text messages now and again about how sorry he is about the money and to check into see how I am getting along.  I am sure there is some self interest in it as well, like getting a fare when things are slow, but he is a good kid and good on him for having the mind to think about business as well!

So Caroline is back at 1700 to pick me up to attend an NGO networking get together at the bar Via-Via.  Again, here I will be meeting so many more people.  I am looking so forward to my afternoon at Via-Via and the evening at Masai Camp.

Until next time, thank you so much for the inspiration and supportive words from home!!  It has truly made my day!

Asante sana.  Kwa here!

PS:  Would love to post photos but still trying to sort out how to do it.  Also, it sucks up the time on the pay-as-you-go modem which Caroline is paying for, so I don't want to abuse her kind generosity in allowing me to use the modem in the first place.

Lights Out

Just closing the curtains to settle in for a little writing when darkness strikes.  The electricity is off again.  Actually it has been on pretty steadily these last few days.  There was a brief outage last night but it came back after only about 45 minutes.  So, here I am at my desk in a dark house, flash lite pointing at my keyboard.

I sorted out my power cord issue.  The technician was unable to open the charger so instead cut the cord and taped it up.  Not exactly the fix I was hoping for but this is not Apple HQ in Cupertino, either.  It works and that's all that matters.

I tried to send an email out with the link to this blog and for some reason it will not send to about half the 170 addresses.  God, I don't know whether to just keep hating technology or hating myself for not learning about it when I had the chance.  I am

Some huge flying creature just flew by my face close enough for me to feel it.  Do roaches fly?  The flash lite is now pointed at the flying insect as it rests on Caroline's computer.  I hope it flies out of here as quickly as it made it in.

Flash: the bug is now in the garbage can.  Where was I?

Oh, yeah, about the bane of my existence: technology.  I just can't seem to figure stuff out on my laptop.  Months ago someone I asked to edit my resume did so by putting "tracking" on the document.  I couldn't figure out how to even read was what written by her doing so.  But now the bigger problem is removing it all together.  Ugh.  I ended up sending what looked like a clean copy of the document out as an attachment and, yes, you guessed it, it arrived with the tracking still on it.  Probably not the best impression to make when looking for work.  I will keep fiddling with it.

The weather seems to be getting more hot each day that passes.  It isn't terrible but it certainly isn't fall in the northern hemisphere either.  The breeze blows occasionally which feels great but with it comes the dust and dirt.

I'm working on a few different projects for Caroline and the center.  Today I spent the day on the computer creating information about the center that we can put on the walls so when visitors and volunteers come they can read about what we do, the students, our mission and how their donations can help.  There is an amazingly long list of things to acquire to make the center evolve into a top notch learning center.  From the biggies like land and buildings (very cheap here by American or European standards) to the most trivial like pens, paper, notebooks, books, well, you get the picture.  We would love to feed the students at lunch time as many/most of them come to school without having eaten breakfast.  They get some crackers/biscuits but don't really eat until they return home late in the afternoon.

I'm also working on funding proposals which I know I will enjoy as it relates directly to a part of development work I would like to know more about.  It will be good experience.  I am also doing outreach to other NGOs seeking resource material (books, pamphlets, brochures, posters) on issues like HIV/AIDS, relationships, gender equality, nutrition, hygiene, education, etc., for the library.  All good.

I took my first drive today in a month thanks to Caroline.  I went into town to recharge the modem.  Everything here is pay as you go.  Cell phones, internet, cable/satellite TV, etc.  I know you can get monthly subscriptions but I guess it is more expensive or who know what.  I felt such a sense of freedom being behind the right hand drive of the car as I cautiously cruised down the left side of the road.  Piece of cake.

The best  part of my day was when Caroline told me my niece, Maddy, had written inquiring about doing a fund raising project as a school project.  When I saw that email I was so proud and happy.  Caroline said "you are already attracting people to the center"!  Maddy, honey, thanks for writing and thinking about helping!  I love you and miss you!  We will be in touch because you will be the first fundraiser from the USA.

I am looking forward to my Saturday.  It will be a busy, fun day.  I am going with Caroline to the Masai Market to buy some items to send to her mom in Australia where she will, in turn, sell the items as a fundraiser for the center.  From there I am having lunch with a lady from Ontario, Canada whom I met a week or two ago at a large lunch for the volunteers who were leaving the center.  Diane works for an NGO here.  Tomorrow afternoon there is an NGO networking get together at the bar Via-Via which apparently, in addition to Nick's Pub and the Masai Camp, is a good place to hang out.  I have not been out for a late night yet here, but I hear things can go until 0500 in the morning.  Better plan for that and rest up.

On Monday I am going to buy a bike so I can join the gym and get some exercise and be mobile.  Leaving what I am use to doing for my health has been difficult.  No corner gyms, no transportation, protein that is not the best, expensive and well, kind of gross.  The poor chickens here don't have time to grow and nothing to eat before they are slaughtered so you can get a chicken that is, well, skinny and small.   I am looking forward to having wheels and spending time on the treadmill!

Here are some things I will leave you with on this Friday night:  Did you know?

·      Tanzania is one of the world’s poorest countries – it ranks 159 out of 177 countries.

·      40 million Tanzanians survive on less than $1US per day.

·      The Ministry of Education of Tanzania widely acknowledges the increasing illiteracy among the poorest people in the country.

·      More than any other form of education, Adult and non-formal education targets the poor and reduces poverty through knowledge and information.

·      The completion rate at primary school level is only 65 percent, an average dropout rate is 6.6 percent, a significant number of school going age are out of school and 29% of adults are illiterates.

·      Education contributes to poverty reduction and to the sustained social and economic development of the country.

·     Sustainable development will only take place if there is increased and improved levels of education.  Lack of basic education undermines all efforts to improve health and nutrition, and impedes efforts to address the cause of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other illnesses.

·      The completion rate at primary school level is only 65 percent, an average dropout rate is 6.6 percent, a significant number of school going age are out of school and 29% of adults are illiterates.

·      The Umoja Centre exists because the formal system does not have the built-in capacity and resources to absorb all Tanzanians.

The following was on the black board in the classroom after Joseph, the local teacher at the center, finished his class.  I am not sure of the author or even if it is Joseph, but it struck me as beautiful and timely.

 

GIFT-ACCEPT IT

I have.

DUTY-PERFORM IT

Gladly.

CHALLENGE-FACE IT

Everyday.

PUZZLE-SOLVE IT

Oh, I am trying.

STRUGGLE-FIGHT IT

No giving up.

BEAUTY-PRAISE IT

I don't enough.

PROMISE-FULFILL IT

I will.

ADVENTURE-DARE IT

Well, I am here!

JOURNEY-COMPLETE IT

Oh yeah!