Post #3 - GHTA Part II

Mambo Vipi S&P Readers!

Somehow another two weeks have gone by at GHTA and we find it necessary to write about a few things…

We had midterms all week last week. It was a long week for the students and so we tried to end it with something interesting that took no preparation. We decided to have an open forum-type discussion on “healthy relationships”. We wanted the discussion to be both informative and important to the students, a discussion where both they and the teachers could learn about how the opposite culture thought about and treated some very touchy subjects. The conversation was split into two major topics; rape and safe sex. I think everyone in the room learned a lot that day. After a brief but necessary introduction of the ground rules given by Victoria, Alex took on the rape conversation, while we handled the safe sex portion. Pat was relieved. He felt uncomfortable, to say the least, leading a conversation that is so sensitive to women worldwide, never mind in a country where it occurs on an appalling scale. Alex is a lawyer-to-be, and hopes to one day fight global human trafficking, and so was the best person for this bit anyway. Alex explained the western definition of rape (according to the F.B.I.) and got the group talking about what does and does not constitute rape. For instance, it is not illegal for a man to rape his wife in Tanzania. Besides that, several of the students, both men and women, felt it is not rape if it is just one man. These shocking revelations (for us westerners, anyway), were openly talked about back and forth for an hour and a half. We spoke of how there are many differing views of rape in the west as well, but could be fairly certain the views described above were unacceptable to a vast majority. The whole discussion was worth it just to see the students understand there was a whole world out there who thought differently about the topic. There was talk of big media stories splashed across every newspaper and magazine in Tanzania. The details of one such case would take too long to explain here, but there were two equally sized-camps among the students (rape and not rape). Alex asked those who said it wasn’t rape what they thought if the woman attacked was their sister, and almost everyone changed their minds.

A slightly less controversial but nonetheless divisive issue, safe sex was what we spoke about. Shauna began by explaining different methods of safe sex while Pat finished with “healthy communication” between sexual partners. It was a discussion that would be familiar to anyone in middle school health class. It was awkward, but it had to be done. Again we westerners were shocked by some of the things the students thought about birth control and sex in general. A majority thought that “the pill” gave all women cancer. Several also believed that women became infertile for life once the pill was taken. The most surprising thing we heard by far, however, was the opinion held by many that “if you don’t use it, you lose it”. The belief was that if you did not have sex or work out your sexual organs on a regular basis that the organs in question would simply stop working, or even fall off. We are not joking. We spoke about it at length and spent quite a bit of energy debunking the theory. We also spoke about being honest with your partner(s) and yourself. We spoke about HIV and the various truths/myths surrounding it, and where one could be tested. In our time here, we have discovered that things have come a long way since the 90s. Anyone can go to a clinic and be tested and have the results given to them within twenty minutes. This is a bit of a side track, but mothers tested positive often do not pass it on to their babies due to advances in drugs/medicines. People are living longer and the rate of contraction is leveling off, but it is still an enormous issue. When all was said and done, the forty students and eight teachers/translators deliberated for over three hours. From the feedback received over the last week, we view the open forum as a complete success. Unable or unwilling to discuss topics like these in their villages or slums, GHTA enabled the students to gain perspective and common sense knowledge too many people in Tanzania go without. We teachers were both relieved and satisfied that the group conversation went as well as it did. Many of the students learned things that will directly impact their lives, and that is a step in the positive direction.

Unfortunately the feeling of good will or accomplishment was short-lived. It was discovered that someone had stolen a good deal of money from a fellow student at some point during the conversation. The amount in question was 200,000 TZS, or about $150. This is at least half a year’s rent for most of our class, if not more, and so it was a monumental deal. Apparently the victim was going to the bank in town for a neighbor after class, to put the money down as a loan payment. Somehow it was known to some of the other students she had the money, and it disappeared (most likely) during our ten minute break. Chaos ensued once the money was discovered missing. The victim shouted bloody murder and quickly fainted for a good fifteen minutes or more. People were screaming at each other in Swahili left and right. When we finally got a grip on the situation, we were forced to hold everyone in school until each student could be searched. This is not a fun process to be part of. Here we are trying to promote an atmosphere of trust and understanding, and of course scholarship, while padding down the students as suspects. We never did find the money, and the police are now involved. There have been several twists and turns in the case, including miscellaneous tips in the form of phone calls and text messages. It has been an unfortunate distraction from what GHTA is trying to achieve, and we are only now (almost two weeks) getting things back to normal.

Even with that bit of nastiness, the positive connections we’ve made have been overly abundant. They have been most rewarding on our home visits each Friday and Saturday. Since arriving we have been to seven homes. It’s is a big honor for the students, and they usually go above and beyond their means and cook us rice or beans with chapatti and bottled water. Many times whatever family they have will be on hand to support the student and thank us for taking her (or him) into GHTA. We bring them something as well, as is custom, including sugar, tea, bread - things like that. The visits are the only way to really get to know each student on a more intimate basis. We ask them or their family all sorts of questions. Are they happy at GHTA? Who are their friends at GHTA, will they maintain those friendships? What is their favorite class? What do they want to do after GHTA, do they have a plan? Are their family members proud of their daughter/wife/etc for going back to school? We also ask about their personal lives. Who lives with them in the home? Do they have water/electricity? We want to get an overall picture of how that person lives and how they are getting on at GHTA. Each visit varies greatly in terms of location and type of home. Some are in utter slums while others are in the country on “farms”. While certainly not lavish, those in the country usually have clean water from Kili glacial melt and do not have thousands of people’s waste piling up with their own. Either way, the home visits are an essential part of the organization. Most students blossom since they are not in front of their peers and therefore not afraid to say something stupid. They also seem to understand that GHTA truly cares about them and their future. They are always extremely grateful for the opportunities GHTA gives them, but the fact that the volunteers take their Friday’s and Saturday’s to travel sometimes two hours each way just to see them seems unfathomable. We have become much closer (post-visit) to each and every student thus far.

On the social side of living in Moshi, there are a couple tidbits worth mentioning as well. We finally went out to one of the local bars and had a ball. We met up with Rahim, Herman and Anna (with her beau Good Luck), and were up until the wee hour of 1am. We all get along quite well and that makes a huge difference in the overall GHTA experience. Another volunteer, Charlotte, has come to us from Regina (and yes the house teases her all the time that it rhymes with a part of the female anatomy), Canada. In her fifties and always upbeat, she has been a great addition to the house. She is always helping someone, either giving away things she’s brought for that purpose or giving us a glass of wine. She arrived just in time for Africa’s largest race, the Kilimanjaro Marathon. Over two thousand people participated (many of them wazungu), and it was a huge party. It was perfect since the start and finish were in the stadium directly across the street from our house. Tailgaters were everywhere and we were perfectly situated to revel in the atmosphere. The marathon is another one of those great events (Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar) that happened to take place while we are here. Lastly, Victoria arranged for a batik “master” to come to the house and show us the art. The process took almost four hours but it ended up being worth it. We had a lot of fun making the batik, and surprisingly we were reasonably good. Once framed it looks as though we have a nice little bathroom set, assuming we one day have a house with bathrooms in it!

Other then that it has been nice to be here a while and get into the flow of the actual teaching. We both seem to have it down and we’re able to help out pretty much anywhere it’s needed. We only have another two and a half weeks before our eight weeks is up! It is absolutely incredible how fast the time goes. It really doesn’t seem possible. We’ll try to write another blog for the rest of our volunteer time in order to focus another one entirely on the week-long safari we’re taking on March 20^th! After the safari we’re back to help prepare for and take part in graduation, but we’ll get to that in a few posts from now…

Much love,

S&P

Pictures #2 - Zanzibar

Post #2 - Zanzibar

Mambo Bloggers,

We only worked for two weeks before getting a vacation! One of Africa’s best festivals (Sauti za Busara) takes place each year in February in Zanzibar, Tanzania, and GHTA allows volunteers here at the time to go. We didn’t flinch at the opportunity. Sitting just off the coast, the Zanzibar archipelago is famed for both its beauty and history. First “discovered” by Vasco de Gama and the Portuguese, the Omanis (as in from Oman, Arabian peninsula) defeated them and controlled the islands as the most important spice and slave trading spot along the entire African coast. As a result the islands have a very different feel from the mainland, and you sometimes feel like you’re in the Middle East as opposed to Africa. From all the marine trading, Zanzibar truly is a melting pot of African, Middle Eastern, and Indian cultures. Eventually, as with pretty much everywhere else in the world, Europe again came calling and the English ran the show, especially after defeating Germany in WWI (Germany controlled the Tanzanian mainland – Africa and its land and resources is largely what WWI was fought over). They abolished the slave trade, but spices continued to be crucial. After England had to give up its empire after WWII, Zanzibar tried to remain autonomous from the mainland until in 1964 when the modern country of Tanzania was born.

Anyway, nowadays tourism is what drives the islands. Unguja (most famous island of the archipelago), home to the medieval Stone Town and perfect beaches, is simply gorgeous. After taking an eight-hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania’s economic and cultural hub), we spent the night and then hurried onto a fast ferry to Stone Town. Coming into port is an experience. The waters are that crystal clear aqua blue you recognize on TV as paradise. Stone Town, as we said, is medieval looking, with old stone fortresses and labyrinth alleyways as streets. Our housemate and fellow volunteer Alex joined us, and so we were three. We didn’t stop in town, since the festival wasn’t to start for another five days. Instead we made our way up to the northeast coast of the island to Kendwa beach, supposedly rated the second most beautiful beach on earth. By who or when we do not know. It very well could be true. Besides a lack of surf (which for many people is a plus), the place is genuine paradise. We cannot say paradise enough in this blog, fyi. The sand was perfect, the water was as described above and around seventy-five degrees. Of the ridiculous beaches we’ve seen thus far (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, US west coast, Costa Rica, and now Tanzania), this may be our favorite. Our room was also nice, the “resort” extremely laid back, and cheap. Not cheap by Vietnam standards, but cheap. There are many beautiful beaches around the island, but we chose Kendwa because it is one of the few you can swim at all the time (most of island is effected greatly by the tides). Our first night we met a couple of Dutchmen and an Englishman we would hang around with the entire week. That first night was also when we stayed up until 6am to watch via satellite the New York FOOTBALL Giants once again take Tom Brady down. So sweet. At least for Pat. Shauna slept most of the game. It couldn’t have been better as there would have been no chance to see the game back in Moshi. Other than that we just enjoyed five lazy beach days, reading and swimming by day and eating freshly caught fish by night. The dorado fish is divine. The only setback (besides Pat losing two pairs of sunglasses) came on our last night. It was a fairly large setback. The Dutch guys had left and it was just the three of us and Andy, the English guy. The four of us went to the resort next door to have dinner. An hour later, everyone but Pat was doubled over in excruciating pain. Food poisoning. Why Pat didn’t get it, who knows, he ate the same thing as Alex, but thank God he didn’t. He was able to run back and forth from our room to the restaurant, fetching soda, water, soda water, more towels to clean up……you get the idea. The worst part came in the middle of the night when the water turned off and the electricity went out. No flushing the toilet, no cold shower, no ceiling fan, and certainly no A/C. It was bad. It is very hot and very humid on the coast here.   

                                                                                                 

It was bad, but the girls were troopers and we made it to Stone Town eventually. Pat and Alex walked around and went to the festival that night, but Shauna was still down for the count. The town itself is tiny, for a former capital of a “country”, but it has immense charm due to its history. The labyrinthine streets are fun to get lost in, and most of the people are still living like they have for generations. It’s getting worse, but Stone Town still retains its local character. You walk by colorful mosques where all the men congregate and socialize, groups of children dancing in the street, and women exposing nothing but their eyes and toes. On our second day we took a day trip to Chumbe Island, 6km south of Stone Town. The island is private and is protected by the government. Only seven completely eco-friendly bungalows occupy an otherwise deserted island. Numbers are strictly enforced, and besides the overnighters, only ten people a day may sign up for our trip to explore the island and snorkel around its pristine coral. We have read in a few places around the main island that Chumbe is one of the five best reefs still around. Again, how true that is we cannot say, but it very well could be. It is the best coral we’ve seen so far on our travels. Because of its reputation we did the corny thing and bought a cheap underwater camera. We’ll try to get these downloaded ASAP and post them here, but when we can’t say. Besides the reef, the island was fun to explore. We also had the best food since being in Tanzania for lunch. The day trip was run by the hotel, and we ate what the guests ate. Among many delicious things served (including bangin’ banana bread), we all agreed the octopus was the best we’ve ever had. Once back on Unguja, we showered and went to the festival’s main event (Saturday). We were introduced to Nneka, a Nigerian-German woman who rocked the house. Anyone interested should definitely look her up, we were thoroughly impressed.

The following day we (thankfully) flew straight from Zanzibar to Kilimanjaro, saving a long and hot day of travel. We are now preparing our mid-term exams for our classes, which is a strange thing to be doing. The shoe is on the other foot, as they say. We’re now in Moshi for five weeks in a row, then we will take a safari into Tanzania’s best parks. From now until then we’re sure there will be many stories to tell about GHTA, a wonderful organization we’re proud to be a part of.

Until then,

S&P

Africa Pictures #1 - Intro GHTA/Moshi

Africa Post #1 - Intro to Give a Heart to Africa & Moshi, Tanzania

Mambo Vipi S&P Bloggers!

It has been three months since our last post, but we very much enjoyed our time off in the States with our families for the holidays. It’s hard to believe, but it has been over a year since our fist blog on Mumbai! It’s incredible how time flies. We’re now in Africa, in Tanzania specifically, and have begun our last leg of S&P’s Excellent Adventure! I hope you all enjoy the next four month’s posts as much as we enjoy living them.

After a 21-hour flight from New York (with two connections), we landed at Kilimanjaro International Airport with no dollars. Big, huge - rookie mistake. Customs only take American dollars for visas (shows you how corrupt the government is). Things did not look good, but thankfully this baller Indian guy gave us $200 and told us to pay him back in TZS (Tanzanian schillings). We were met at the airport by Victoria, our mother hen at Give a Heart to Africa (GHTA henceforth), and our friendly chauffeur, Kasanda. They brought us to the nearest ATM (30 minute drive) while the Indian man waited for a flight connection, and all worked out well in the end. Very lucky. It wasn’t a great start, however, especially since our bags did not join us on our flight from Nairobi. Exhausted, we made it back to our “new home” and passed out immediately after eating some rice and beans (we eat a lot of rice and beans, as in many places around the world). We didn’t sleep long, however, as all the volunteers were meeting on that Saturday to go over each person’s role with the group business assignments currently taking place at GHTA. There were four groups in all; each assigned a job-for-profit around town, our town being Moshi, an hour’s drive from the airport. Barely awake and definitely not listening, we were each paired with a group to observe and report on. Shauna’s group was singing at a church, where donations from the congregation would be there profit. Everyone in our house went, which meant waking up rather early on Sunday, about 18 hours after we landed. Everything went well enough, but the heat of the country punched us right in the face on the walk home at noon. It’s actually not bad, due to the altitude, out of the sun. In the sun, however, and there was no shade on this particular walk home, it’s brutal. Anyway, the following day, our first Monday (which is usually taken up by class), the other three groups performed their tasks. Pat was assigned group 2A, and they cleaned a local restaurant for a pre-agreed amount (about 75 cents a person, since there were 10 in the group). They cleaned the place very well, but we still won’t be eating there the entire time we’re here. No need to go into the specifics, but it was gross. We then proceeded to work a regular workweek combined with “Internet Day” that Friday and Saturday (which was actually amazing; most of the students had never seen it, and setting up email accounts and watching their faces after showing them the power of Google was priceless). The point is that we didn’t get a day to sleep until ten days after arriving, and on that second Sunday we made like God and rested.

Now that we’ve caught everyone up on our arrival, let us properly introduce you all to Give a Heart to Africa, the NGO we’re volunteering for until the end of March. A lovely Czech-Canadian woman named Monika, who we met in Toronto over Christmas while visiting Pat’s sister, started GHTA in 2009. The goal of the non-profit is to educate extremely poor women for whom secondary education is completely out of reach. Most people in Tanzania go to school through the government until Standard 7, or 7^th grade. Most simply stop after that, and try to carve out a life however they can. Women are especially handicapped by the system, as many of the jobs are just not open to them. With much of the money given by volunteers and through other donations, GHTA tries to take some of the most needy and provide them with solid English, business, and computer skills. Each class lasts six months, broken up into two three-month semesters. The demand is incredible. From simply posting fliers around town, last year there were two hundred applicants for the forty available slots. There is an interview process that apparently takes up an entire weekend. We’ll be a part of this for the next class (who we won’t teach) later next month. The students (ages anywhere from twenty to fifty) consist of thirty-two women and eight men. Apparently even GHTA had to fill some sort of “man quota”. Life for our students is hard. It’s very hard. Many live in tiny rooms or mud huts without any running water, electricity, or any kind of proper sanitation. Some travel as far as two hours to make it to class by 9am (8am if they need or want extra help). Sickness and death is all around. Several of our students have malaria, Tanzania’s (and most of Africa’s) number one killer. At least one student (i.e. that we know about) has AIDS. Another’s brother just died of pneumonia. Life is just different, yet each and every one of them is so grateful for the opportunity GHTA provides them. They are so friendly and upbeat, at least when they’re around us. It is safe to say we’re learning more about the world from them than the business/computer skills they are learning from us. There are many things to talk about when it comes to life and our students and the opportunities GHTA provides, but let us leave that for a later blog.

Our typical week looks like this: Monday through Thursday we’re teaching two classes a day from 9am-12pm. Shauna teaches business (with Victoria, who runs GHTA while Monika is in Canada saving money) while Pat teaches computer. Two other volunteers, Alex from NJ/NC and Tina from London, teach English. Each class has a Tanzanian translator as well. They are all former students, and they are both indispensable and our friends. Shauna works with Herman, and Pat with Rahim. On Monday and Thursday we have a daycare for the student’s and neighborhood children. Pat doesn’t really partake in this; Shauna and Alex (who is female) fight over who can play more with the kids. Shauna is especially fond of Messe (pronounced like the soccer star), an adorable five-year-old who lives around the corner. On Tuesday and Wednesday we provide extra help after class. We also provide an hour of extra help each morning if requested. On Friday we conduct usually two home visits to our student’s homes. These are important, as they’re the only way to get to know each student on a more personal level. These encounters are enlightening for both teacher and student, but we will go into more depth in a later blog.

As I mentioned earlier, we live in Moshi, Tanzania. Moshi sits directly below Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest point and the world’s tallest “free standing” mountain, whatever that means. It is basically a huge-ass extinct volcano, and it’s pretty sweet to wake up to each morning. We’re in the north of the country, close to the border of Kenya. We’re in the middle of the country, being eight hours east of Africa’s biggest lake (Lake Victoria, the source of the Nile River), which is the border for Uganda, and five hours west of the Indian Ocean coast. Being so close to “Kili”, we are higher in elevation than a lot of the country, and that helps with the heat and humidity. We’re not far from the equator, and you can guess what that means for temperature. It is still horrible when the sun is hitting you directly, but in the shade it is pleasant, and sleeping is not a problem (thank God). Because Moshi is the jumping off point for any climb up Kili, it sees its fair share of wazungu (white people). It works out well for us, since there are a few decent places to eat and some nice hotels where we can pay a small fee and use their pools all afternoon. Downtown is lively and pleasantly surprising. There is even a new “supermarket” that has filtered ice and air conditioning! We spend quite a bit of time “shopping” (i.e. walking around aimlessly). Our house (which is also where the school is) is luxurious, we now realize, compared to most places around town. We have running water (half the time, but we think that will change now that the rainy season is coming) and electricity. That means we have flushing toilets and showers, we have ceiling fans and a refrigerator, and we have light at night. Our rooms are nice and we have our own (in bunk beds, unfortunately – Pat took the top due to Shauna’s tiny bladder), and we even have our own bathroom! We get dinner cooked for us each night by Margaret, a very nice Tanzanian who gives rather generous portions, thereby giving us lunch many afternoons the following day. All of this is included in the money we gave up front, so it is plausible for us to live on next to nothing (side trips aside) until our time is up here. Rounding out the regular characters in our lives are Mama Joff, who cleans the house and school, Nabana, the night watchman who just had a baby girl named Anna, and Kasanda, the husband of one of our students who owns a taxi and brings us wherever we need to go around town (if we don’t walk, of course). There is also another volunteer, Anna from Sweden, who lives in Moshi with her partner (and is going to have a baby in five months) and helps teach computers with Pat about half the time. Thankfully we get along just fine with everyone in the house. Victoria has been an American expat for about twenty years, splitting time between Paris and Madrid before quitting her job and taking over GHTA in Monika’s absence. Tiny is the sixty-six-year-old retired mother of two who has come to due her bit for two months. She’s a spark plug and quite a laugh, as many a Brit are. Alex is the baby at twenty-four. She recently conquered the LSAT and is now applying to schools while giving six months to GHTA. Pat is the lone male in the house, but he is fairly used to this role from living with only his sisters and mother for a few years. There are times when the estrogen levels are high and he has to plug his ears or simply walk away, but mostly everyone is cool and it’s of little concern.  

After that lengthy explanation of our lives over the past two weeks, we digress. Our vacation to the Indian Ocean and the islands of Zanzibar will be up next. You didn’t think it would be all work and no play, did you?!

Much love,

S&P