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!