19th May, 2009 - Connections

It's been awhile since I've posted anything so I guess it's time to let you all know what's happening. I went to Dodoma again last week and spent two days looking for housing. I rather enjoyed it, and was reminded again of how important connections are. All of the contacts were friends of friends of friends ..... and so it goes. The word goes out and somehow things happen. One of the people who showed me a house was someone that was asked to do so because the original contact was out of town. Amazingly enough, in the course of the conversation I learned that he was married to a former student of mine! After that connection was established I certainly got the red carpet treatment.


Hopefully we will be able to make a decision about the next step soon after the arrival of Sr. Connie, with whom I will be living and working. She comes next month, so I'm looking forward to settling in.


One thing that struck me during the 12 hour ride to and fro was the grass cutting along the sides of the road. The rainy season is now finished or finishing in most parts of the country so the grass which grew so tall along the sides of the road and in the ditches is now being cut. It's being cut by men with slashers and machetes, all by hand. I'm not sure what portion of ditch is given to each person but it's obvious that each fellow has his piece and works at it. It would be interesting to know how many people are hired to do this grass cutting each time it's done since Tanzania is a big country with many, many miles of roads.


The day before I left for Dodoma I visited a woman who lived near the school in Singida when I was there and who now lives outside of Arusha. She has a very long and very tragic story, but the short version is that she has five children with her who she ran away with from her husband who is a drunk and was beating her within an inch of her life. When she first came to this area she managed to get a job at one of the flower farms, and she said it was a great job. She was paid almost $2.00 per day and was also given morning tea and a noon meal, and with this job she was able to pay rent for two very small rooms and to buy food for her children as well as school uniforms and supplies for the two youngest (the oldest boy has finished primary school; the oldest girl and second boy had to quit school and so don't even have a primary school certificate). Unfortunately, with the demand for flowers bottoming out because of the financial situation in Europe and the U.S., the farms have had to lay off many workers, and because she was among the latest employed, she was among the first to go. And then in March she fell when getting out of a bus and broke her arm so that is just now healing. The oldest boy does whatever job he can get, and together they are just barely managing. She says that the only job available to the oldest girl is selling local beer, and she doesn't want her to do that since sellers always have to taste the gourd of beer first (a guarantee that it isn't poisoned). I'm sure that stories such as hers are multiplied many, many times but her loss of what she considered a very good job shows again how the world is connected and especially how what affects the developed world has many repurcussions for the developing world.

The cold season has started and mornings and afternoons see us all with sweaters or jackets. I even sometimes pull up a second blanket at night so that 's a big change from February.