Shannon Heads East

Tunza:

Last weekend I had my first experience at the ever so popular Tunza beach resort. It was absolutely breathtaking, I felt as though I was in a different country. There was a beautiful beach set into Lake Victoria, a playground for kids, and a bar for food and drinks. We were celebrating a going away party for one of our friends from Germany. It was a really fun and relaxing night, and great way to wind down a busy week.

Interesting fact: The main part of the meal was BBQ goat. Apparently this is the most common type of meat to BBQ here!

Chris and I at Tunza

Tunza Sunset

BBQ Goat!!

Cooking – no such thing as fast food

The other night Missy and I decided to make lentil soup! One thing you have to realize about cooking in Africa is that nothing is ever ready instantly. The first step was picking out the rocks from the lentils (everything you buy rice, beans, etc has rocks in that you have to pick out). This took about 1 hour, next was pealing and chopping the garlic, next was chopping the cilantro…but then we ran into a serious obstacle! The power was out, and we needed the blender! Lately the power has been out for about 5-6 hours each night, so we concluded that we should make something else! So what started as an exciting quest of making lentil soup at 6:00, resulted in boiled yams and carrots by 9:00pm. Nevertheless, a couple of days later we were finally able to complete the task and it was well worth it!

Meeting two with the Mamas!

Chris and I arrived for our weekly meeting with the mamas at 4:00pm. We were warmly greeted by a group of them seated outside the kitchen preparing mandaziis for the following day. Although attendance was lacking due to a funeral a couple of the mamas had to attend, I would say that overall, the meeting was a success. Three of the mamas were present for the entire meeting, and two were in and out preparing mandaziis and serving yoghurt.

We told them how much we have enjoyed working with them, and greatly appreciate how welcoming they have been.

Main points discussed:

· Starehe Children’s home – Gave Mama Joyce the contact number of the lady I spoke with who indicated that she would like the Mamas to deliver yoghurt to the home

· NIMR – informed them that they can continue to pick up the probiotics. Gave them Edita’s number (women currently in charge of preparing the probiotics)

· Land – told them we met a man very enthusiastic about helping the women make the land they own profitable and check-up on their cows

· Probiotics Presentation

§ Provided education on probiotics and their importance (i.e what they are, what are their health benefits, who should consumed them, etc)

§ Women seemed unaware of the benefit of probiotics for EVERYONE not just people with HIV/AIDS

§ I will prepare a summarized information sheet for them in Swahili that they can post on their wall. This will help with community education surrounding the benefits of probiotics for everyone which I am realizing is still lacking

Visit to the Land (Nyamongoro)

On Tuesday Chris and I had a very insightful and thought provoking day. We began at 11:00am where we met Minde (The Veterinarian) at his office for a short debriefing before we went to the Yoghurt kitchen. After this we walked to Mabatini which took roughly half an hour, but I thoroughly enjoyed the scenic route that Minde took us on. I got to walk through two extremes of Mwanza. The beginning of the walk was through Isamilo which is a “rich” area where we passed gorgeous houses surrounded by barbed wire, 4 stories high! No more than 2km from here, we were back walking past one room homes that looked as if they may blow over, and piles of garbage. It was like I walked through two different worlds within a time span of 2 minutes. It’s really interesting to see the two different sides of Mwanza, but I find there is not really a “middle ground.” You either live in the rich areas, or you are poverty stricken and just trying to get by each day.

Once we finally reached the Kitchen, we introduced Mama Joyce to Minde and they spoke for a while in Swahili and Minde received a better understanding of their business and the land that they own in Nyamongoro. After some fresh Maziwa (milk) we were ready to hit the road to assess the land! The land was bought by Western Heads East a couple of years ago for the Mamas where they currently have cows intended to supply the milk for their business. After some great bartering skills by Chris, we got a good deal for a taxi trip (a lot more comfortable than a dala dala) to Nyamongoro which is located about 30km from Mwanza City Centre.

When we arrived Chris and I were a little bit shocked at what we saw. They have three cows, one bull and about 16 chickens on about one acre of land. Two of the cows are pregnant, and one just gave birth on Sunday. Only one of the cows is producing milk, and only a meager 2L per day. The cows are not receiving the proper nourishment and all look quite emaciated. Minde informed us that they need better feed and supplements in order to nurse them back to health and get them producing more milk. Currently the Mamas are not profiting much from the land, as they have to pay for feed, farmers, and water, among other things and are not receiving anything in return (i.e required amount of milk).

After this eye-opening experience we returned to the kitchen and were pleasantly surprised to find our translator Stanley! A few of the Mamas were there so capitalized on this opportunity to discuss the issues with the land and received some good feedback from them. All the mamas are going to discuss their options amongst themselves and report back to us at our next meeting.

Me and Mama Joyce at the Land

Mtoni Secondary School

On Wednesday Chris and I had an awesome day visiting Mtoni Secondary School. We met with Albert, the assistant headmaster and learned lots about their school system and identified some of the similarities and differences from Canada. One thing that I found shocking was that all the subjects apart from Kiswahili are taught in English, and it is evident that many students have trouble with English, so I imagine this is extremely difficult. The school is divided into four forms, and there are about 3 streams (of 60 students) in each form (i.e three streams of form one). The school day is from 8:00am – 2:00pm. They have two breaks, one is from 10:40-11:10 (this is when the students come buy chapattis and chai) and the other is from 12:30-12:40pm. There are only about 14 teachers, for almost 1000 students! Albert said this is very difficult but “this is what we have, so we work hard.” After we spoke with Albert and were introduced to some of the other teachers, we were taken around to the different classrooms. I was quite nervous and intimidated when I walked into the first crowded classroom with over 60 students staring at me! Chris and I introduced ourselves, and told each class a little bit about ourselves including why we are here, what we are studying back home, and what we like about Tanzania (I of course said the weather!). One thing the students couldn’t seem to understand was that Chris is from Canada, they had a really hard time grasping the concept because Chris is black they assumed he must be from Africa. This made us both realize how single minded Canadians are, because we assume people know about how diverse Canada is, but the students had no idea that there were black people in Canada. Chris did an awesome job explaining the slave trade, colonialism, and his history about how he and his family arrived in Canada. Albert helped to translate some things, especially with the younger students to assist with their understanding. Chris and I gave them some words of encouragement, and Albert told all the girls to talk to me about what it takes to reach a high level of education – and I told them that, they can do or be anything they want to be as long as they work hard and set their mind to it!

We are both really looking forward to visiting with the students again, to answer any questions they may have about Canada and to learn more about Tanzania! I’m also looking forward to sharing my experience and pictures with Clarke Road Secondary School (partnered with Mtoni) when I return!