Is it beginning to look a little like Fall in the northern hemisphere? Here we are definitely experiencing a change of seasons, and it seems to be happening right at the time when seasons are supposed to change. It’s becoming warmer, and the sun seems to be even stronger than usual. We still have cool nights, and that’s always nice for sleeping. The wind continues to blow, and in the mornings we see folks going to their fields to begin preparing them for planting when the rains do come.
One week into my English classes and I’m enjoying them very much. I have a good-sized class of 45, almost an equal mix of boys and girls. I suppose about ⅓ of the class are resident at the Village of Hope, and the rest are from the neighborhood. Those who have finished primary school (9) don’t wear their uniforms, but the rest do, and so it’s impossible to tell who live with their families and who are orphans. I also need to find out more about how being HIV+ affects the health of these youngsters because I’ve noticed that sometimes a child will be very responsive and alert one day and the next day he/she may be looking/acting like there’s something wrong. Anyway, they are generally very attentive and appear interested in what we’re doing. Of course, as with all classes, there is a good range of aptitude/past learning, so some are definitely better in English than others. So far we’re doing fine together, and I expect that we’ll continue to have a good time with some serious learning going on as well.
I was happy for the weekend, not that the teaching is strenuous, but the walk to and from is tiring. I leave the house at about 7.45 a.m., walk 45 minutes, have a bit of time to brush the dust off my shoes and remind myself of my lesson, and start class at 8.40. Class lasts until 10.00 and then I go to the road and wait for a small bus to take me a bit down the road, only about a five minute ride. From the place I get off then there’s another 20 minute walk home. I enjoy the morning walk because it’s still quite cool and the sun hasn’t become too intense yet. The return is a little more difficult because of the sun, and the wind at that time is stronger, too. I’m beginning to reconcile myself to the fact that I’m not as young as I once was (: and hence the tired feeling by the time I return.
We had our first overnight guests this past week, and so that was very nice. Sr. Janet from Morogoro came with a Tanzanian Sister on their way to Mwanza, and Connie went off with them the next morning. And so I’m alone for two weeks as Connie visits her old mission and renews friendships of years ago. I don’t mind being alone but during the weekend the days got a little long. It’s a good opportunity for some solitude.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
21st September 2009 - Idd el Fitri
This week I’m posting a short blog (you’re probably grateful for that …) because the little finger on my left hand minds it when I hit the shift key or a’s, or q’s, or z’s. I cut the tip of it really well the other day when I was cutting grapes from their stem, and so I have an excuse to go slow on the typing. The story of grapes and Dodoma is one for another day.
Our water is back now for the past couple of days, and having a hot shower two days in a row is a nice luxury. The weather is getting warmer, so a shower in the evening feels especially good these days. There were workmen around for two days, from early morning until late in the evening, putting up the gates on the wall around the house. They are huge, and sliding, so it took quite a bit of expertise to install them well. They still need to be painted but at long last they’re up. We should really be secure when the landlord finishes everything he has planned, and installing the gates was a big step in that direction. It’s not as though we feel insecure here, but with a lot of young people out of work and this part of the country suffering from drought this year, it wouldn’t be too surprising to have some attempts at robbery. So far so good, knock on wood, and hopefully that will continue.
Yesterday and today are the holidays of Idd el Fitri, the Muslim celebration at the end of the month of Ramadhan. These are national holidays, so everyone is having a day off. Most Muslim families are celebrating with special meals, maybe some new clothes, visiting family and friends. Tomorrow I begin teaching at the Village of Hope Primary School, Standards VI and VII. The VII’s will be only the children from the Village because they have already finished their exams and those who aren’t resident there are at their own homes. The VI’s will be a mixture of kids, and altogether there will be about 40, I guess. The classes will be revision for the older ones and extra work for the younger ones, mostly in oral English. I can’t wait to meet them and begin to know them!
Our water is back now for the past couple of days, and having a hot shower two days in a row is a nice luxury. The weather is getting warmer, so a shower in the evening feels especially good these days. There were workmen around for two days, from early morning until late in the evening, putting up the gates on the wall around the house. They are huge, and sliding, so it took quite a bit of expertise to install them well. They still need to be painted but at long last they’re up. We should really be secure when the landlord finishes everything he has planned, and installing the gates was a big step in that direction. It’s not as though we feel insecure here, but with a lot of young people out of work and this part of the country suffering from drought this year, it wouldn’t be too surprising to have some attempts at robbery. So far so good, knock on wood, and hopefully that will continue.
Yesterday and today are the holidays of Idd el Fitri, the Muslim celebration at the end of the month of Ramadhan. These are national holidays, so everyone is having a day off. Most Muslim families are celebrating with special meals, maybe some new clothes, visiting family and friends. Tomorrow I begin teaching at the Village of Hope Primary School, Standards VI and VII. The VII’s will be only the children from the Village because they have already finished their exams and those who aren’t resident there are at their own homes. The VI’s will be a mixture of kids, and altogether there will be about 40, I guess. The classes will be revision for the older ones and extra work for the younger ones, mostly in oral English. I can’t wait to meet them and begin to know them!
Monday, September 14, 2009
14th September 2009 - Water, etc.
This past week was one with almost no water coming from the taps. We hear all kinds of different stories as to why: The water department is servicing the system; they are increasing the size of the water pipe coming this way; they are diverting water from our line to another line reaching further toward the railway tracks; there just isn’t enough water in this area because of the building and the population increase. Whatever the reason, and I have no idea as to which might be the most plausible, water came out of the tap only a couple times this whole week. Both times we quickly filled our buckets, but actually we haven’t been without water altogether because of the water tanks that are on the back porch roof. Thanks to the foresight of our landlord, whenever there’s sufficient pressure in the system, it fills the tanks. We are careful with our use of this precious commodity, so haven’t run completely out yet. Of course there isn’t enough pressure to fill the tank for hot water, but we are grateful that at least we have water with which to wash. The scarcity of water also gives me the excuse to delay washing clothes, one of my least favorite tasks. Of course the dirty ones are piling up and the day of reckoning will come, I’m sure.
There is more to say about how folks make their livings around here. The creativity and enterprise and hard work that epitomizes folks in the non-formal sector continues to amaze me. One fellow peels 30 kg of potatoes that are then made into chips (French fries) by other folks; many women make rice cakes or donut-type snacks and sit at a heavily trafficked spot to sell to whoever goes by. One of our neighbors goes to the hills about an hours’ walk away, gets a certain kind of soil (clay, I guess), makes cooking pots, then goes again to the hills to gather firewood, fires the pots, and then sells them for 500 shillings each! (500 shillings is equivalent to less than 40¢ U.S.) A lot of people buy things that are relatively abundant at one location and taking them to another place to sell with a little mark- up. A lady I met on the bus the other day was coming from town with a bucket of meat, and she was going to roast the meat and sell it at the place where they sell the local brew. She says she does that every day. After we got off the bus she was carrying the 20 litre bucket which was chock full of meat on her head. You’ve heard me complain about walking from the main road with the wind fighting with my umbrella. Imagine that heavy bucket on her head and trying to keep it balanced with the wind. There are a lot of talents in this world that go unrecognized and unheralded.
On Saturday we went to an “mnada”. Mnadas are usually held in rural areas, and are historically and first and foremost a place where folks buy and sell livestock. They have evolved into places where people buy and sell almost anything: used clothing, new clothes, shoes, kitchen needs (pots & pans, dishes, etc), crops, fresh vegetables, food,-- just about anything that one might be in need of. We were actually looking for some traditional craft of the Wagogo, the people who live in this area, and thought we could find some at the mnada, and unfortunately didn’t come across any. We were there fairly early, around noon time, and maybe things like that arrived later, but anyway we came away almost empty handed. What we managed to buy was one used pillow case, something we had been looking for, so the trip wasn’t all useless. This particular event is held on the other side of town, so it took us about a half hour to get there from town.
We also had our lunch there which consisted of roast meat. We were sitting near a tree to which was nailed the carcass of at least half a cow, and pieces would be cut off. The customer picks out the piece he/she wants and then it’s taken to be roasted. When it’s cooked, someone comes with some water with which to wash our hands, and the meat, and voila, lunch. We had beef, but a lot of goats were being roasted. And on the outskirts we even saw some pork being sold. The pork is usually on the periphery so as not to offend the sensibilities of the Muslims and their religious prohibition of pork.
May we all have a good week.
There is more to say about how folks make their livings around here. The creativity and enterprise and hard work that epitomizes folks in the non-formal sector continues to amaze me. One fellow peels 30 kg of potatoes that are then made into chips (French fries) by other folks; many women make rice cakes or donut-type snacks and sit at a heavily trafficked spot to sell to whoever goes by. One of our neighbors goes to the hills about an hours’ walk away, gets a certain kind of soil (clay, I guess), makes cooking pots, then goes again to the hills to gather firewood, fires the pots, and then sells them for 500 shillings each! (500 shillings is equivalent to less than 40¢ U.S.) A lot of people buy things that are relatively abundant at one location and taking them to another place to sell with a little mark- up. A lady I met on the bus the other day was coming from town with a bucket of meat, and she was going to roast the meat and sell it at the place where they sell the local brew. She says she does that every day. After we got off the bus she was carrying the 20 litre bucket which was chock full of meat on her head. You’ve heard me complain about walking from the main road with the wind fighting with my umbrella. Imagine that heavy bucket on her head and trying to keep it balanced with the wind. There are a lot of talents in this world that go unrecognized and unheralded.
On Saturday we went to an “mnada”. Mnadas are usually held in rural areas, and are historically and first and foremost a place where folks buy and sell livestock. They have evolved into places where people buy and sell almost anything: used clothing, new clothes, shoes, kitchen needs (pots & pans, dishes, etc), crops, fresh vegetables, food,-- just about anything that one might be in need of. We were actually looking for some traditional craft of the Wagogo, the people who live in this area, and thought we could find some at the mnada, and unfortunately didn’t come across any. We were there fairly early, around noon time, and maybe things like that arrived later, but anyway we came away almost empty handed. What we managed to buy was one used pillow case, something we had been looking for, so the trip wasn’t all useless. This particular event is held on the other side of town, so it took us about a half hour to get there from town.
We also had our lunch there which consisted of roast meat. We were sitting near a tree to which was nailed the carcass of at least half a cow, and pieces would be cut off. The customer picks out the piece he/she wants and then it’s taken to be roasted. When it’s cooked, someone comes with some water with which to wash our hands, and the meat, and voila, lunch. We had beef, but a lot of goats were being roasted. And on the outskirts we even saw some pork being sold. The pork is usually on the periphery so as not to offend the sensibilities of the Muslims and their religious prohibition of pork.
May we all have a good week.
Monday, September 7, 2009
7th September 2009 - Mosquitoes
A couple blogs ago I promised that I’d share with you my love of mosquitoes. Well, although I try to be kind and non-violent to all God’s creatures, when it comes to mosquitoes I have to admit that my principles become a bit compromised. When we moved into this house, there were SO many mosquitoes. One reason, most certainly, is that fairly near the back of the house there’s a water hole which, I think, collects a good deal of water during the rainy season. That water is used for building especially when there’s no water coming out of the taps. At this point, very little water remains, and what’s there is green and slimy and probably an optimum place for mosquitoes to breed. And so when daytime turns into dusk they gather by the multitude trying to get in the house. We do our best to keep the doors closed, and all the windows have good mosquito netting on them, but somehow they manage to get in. We try to figure out how they do it, and here are some theories: 1) We haven’t managed to get rid of those that were in the house when we moved in (what’s the life span of a mosquito anyway??). 2) They squeeze in under the doors. 3) Some windows we keep open all day and night and the screens don’t fit 100% tightly so maybe they find those places. 4) There’s a conspiracy in the mosquito world that is aimed at annoying us……
Anyway, however they do it, there are always mosquitoes in the house. By the time we finish eating dinner in the evening they’re beginning to make themselves heard and felt. And when we pray after dinner they prove to be a real distraction. We have this “zapper” – a tennis racket-shaped apparatus that is charged in an electrical socket and when it hits a flying insect it zaps them. Sometimes we resemble Serena and Venus chasing mosquitoes instead of tennis balls, but if the mosquito population is any indication, it seems we won’t be winning any tournaments. We sleep under mosquito nets, but should your foot or hand touch the net during the night, you’re sure to wake up with a welt. It would be nice to be able to read in bed at night without the benefit of the net between you and the light, but that’s impossible. I usually do a mosquito hunting detail before going to bed, and have become pretty adept at killing them as they sit on the wall. It’s their hiding places that can’t be gotten to easily: under the bed, behind the bookshelf, in the curtains. Anyway, we can only thank God that we haven’t come down with malaria, and hope that remains to be so for a long time to come.
Speaking of malaria, here is some information from an article that was in the newspaper this past week. Most shocking is this statement: “In sub-Saharan Africa, malaria is the single biggest cause of death in children under five, killing a child every 30 seconds.” (The Guardian, September 2, 2009) The focus of the article was really about the cost of malaria, and how it often determines how much money a family has to live on during a particular time. It talks about how the cost of malaria ranges from the purchase of a mosquito net, transport to and from a health facility when a member of the family gets malaria, the fee at the hospital or health center, the cost of anti-malarial drugs, and other costs like caring for the sick and therefore time away from income-generating activities, or the wage-earner her/himself being unable to work and earn money. So the endless cycle of poverty and disease goes on. The article also was encouraging the use of ITNs (Insecticide-Treated Nets) and told about how the incidence of malaria has decreased as families begin to use the nets. There is a well-known initiative in Tanzania to provide these nets to expectant mothers and children under-five, those who suffer a high mortality rate from malaria. Support from the government of Switzerland has helped this initiative, and the Swiss Ambassador is quoted in the article: “Malaria is a poverty-related disease, both in cause and effect, which may explain why it tends to receive relatively little attention from decision makers in the rich countries. But malaria is preventable and treatable.” I’m reminded about the debate going on in the U.S. now about health care, and how some of us are afraid that we won’t get all the choices that we think we deserve in regard to our health care. What about the rest of the world that gets almost NO choice, not even between the life and death of a child?
Anyway, however they do it, there are always mosquitoes in the house. By the time we finish eating dinner in the evening they’re beginning to make themselves heard and felt. And when we pray after dinner they prove to be a real distraction. We have this “zapper” – a tennis racket-shaped apparatus that is charged in an electrical socket and when it hits a flying insect it zaps them. Sometimes we resemble Serena and Venus chasing mosquitoes instead of tennis balls, but if the mosquito population is any indication, it seems we won’t be winning any tournaments. We sleep under mosquito nets, but should your foot or hand touch the net during the night, you’re sure to wake up with a welt. It would be nice to be able to read in bed at night without the benefit of the net between you and the light, but that’s impossible. I usually do a mosquito hunting detail before going to bed, and have become pretty adept at killing them as they sit on the wall. It’s their hiding places that can’t be gotten to easily: under the bed, behind the bookshelf, in the curtains. Anyway, we can only thank God that we haven’t come down with malaria, and hope that remains to be so for a long time to come.
Speaking of malaria, here is some information from an article that was in the newspaper this past week. Most shocking is this statement: “In sub-Saharan Africa, malaria is the single biggest cause of death in children under five, killing a child every 30 seconds.” (The Guardian, September 2, 2009) The focus of the article was really about the cost of malaria, and how it often determines how much money a family has to live on during a particular time. It talks about how the cost of malaria ranges from the purchase of a mosquito net, transport to and from a health facility when a member of the family gets malaria, the fee at the hospital or health center, the cost of anti-malarial drugs, and other costs like caring for the sick and therefore time away from income-generating activities, or the wage-earner her/himself being unable to work and earn money. So the endless cycle of poverty and disease goes on. The article also was encouraging the use of ITNs (Insecticide-Treated Nets) and told about how the incidence of malaria has decreased as families begin to use the nets. There is a well-known initiative in Tanzania to provide these nets to expectant mothers and children under-five, those who suffer a high mortality rate from malaria. Support from the government of Switzerland has helped this initiative, and the Swiss Ambassador is quoted in the article: “Malaria is a poverty-related disease, both in cause and effect, which may explain why it tends to receive relatively little attention from decision makers in the rich countries. But malaria is preventable and treatable.” I’m reminded about the debate going on in the U.S. now about health care, and how some of us are afraid that we won’t get all the choices that we think we deserve in regard to our health care. What about the rest of the world that gets almost NO choice, not even between the life and death of a child?
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