New Program in Chamwino

Youth Challenge International partners with local organizations with similar missions and values. In Morogoro we work together with Faraja Trust Fund. Faraja is resposible for building the community centres and schools where our programs take place.

This month we started a new program in Chamwino. Chamwino is in the outskirts of town and sometimes referred to as the "slums". The school is still under construction, but there are four walls and a roof, and the locals are excited to start participating. They are so excited that we started programming sooner than expected. Our first classes started 3 weeks ago and we have been returning every week. We are now up to 2 days per week. The classes include basic computer skills, english lessons, HIV/AIDS information, condom demonstrations, gender issues and much more. So far the turnout has been overwhelming and the ratio of female to male participants better than expected.

The school is slowly nearing completion. Knowing that we have this much interest even without a finished school is very exciting.

We will be hosting the first "Ushujaa kwa Uhai" (Courage for Life) talent night in Chamwino this Friday, October 31st with or without pumpkins.

Chapati, Mandazi and Rice!

Baba and Mama invited the girls over for dinner today. It was going to be a feast. Lonny and I said we would help out with the groceries and the cooking.

Lonny and Baba spent that morning in town at the market. They picked up flour, oil, tomatoes, cucumber, onions, peas, beans, rice, pineapple, coconut, meat, spinach, and bananas.

I spent the morning in the kitchen making mandazi. Mandazi is a fried pastry similar to donuts. Mama uses coconut as her special ingredient. So, first things first...crack open the coconut. A few hard whacks with a metal rod and it cracks. I get to try the coconut milk. I scrap out the coconut meat with a crazy contraption that has a serrated blade at one end. Definitely hard, manual labour. So three coconuts later and we start making the dough; flour, yeast and rinsed coconut. The water we rinsed the coconut with was also added. We then made small balls with the dough and fried them in hot oil.

Lonny and Baba made Cinnamon Buns. Yup!

We spent most of the day cooking for dinner making sure the ladies had the best of the best. First course was rice, beans, beef stew and peas with a tomato, cucumber and onion salad. Second was Mandazi, Cinnamon Buns and Chapati served with hot Chai. Third was sweet pineapple.

Even though the power has been out for about 3 days we had an awesome candlelit dinner!

Also, the rain has arrived. Mud and the hazardous walk without falling is a daily routine now. At least it has cooled down with the clouds hiding the sun.

A Smile Speaks Louder than Words

Some of our work involves Home Based Care (HBC) for people living with HIV. We visit with local families and provide them with some basic essentials.

Today, HBC hosted a play day for all the families to enjoy. There were over 100 people, including young and old. Julia and Lonny prepared most of the activities that day which included colouring books, ring toss, bowling and the infamous rain game. They also enjoyed some rice, beans and bananas. Philip and Florian, two German volunteers with Faraja even had the kids making their own crowns. At the end of the day HBC handed out soap, cooking oil, rice and flour along with 2,000Tsh for each family.

The entire day was very heartwarming even though at times it was hard to hold back tears. Watching these children having fun and smiling is what this is all about.

Mikumi National Park

An African Safari was on my "to-do list." We booked a day safari with Augustine, a friend of Lindsey and Jessica's. He just started his own Safari company and is an avid hunter. He is also married to a Canadian, meaning his English is fluent.

We met up with Augustine at 0500 in order to make it to the park at sunrise. Much the same as a National Park in Canada, wildlife hang around at the road side. Only here the animals are baboons, giraffes and zebras.

Some of the wildlife we saw include buffalo, warthogs, giraffes, zebras, elephants, crocodiles, hippos, and lions. The lions were the highlight of the trip as we found a lion and lioness mating. Truly unbelievable to see these creatures in the wild.

Even as a National Park, poaching within the park is still an easy income for locals. Poaching was evident during our safari. We saw one elephant with a torn trunk, mostly likely from a snare as well as a buffalo with a snare around its neck.

After our safari we stopped in the town of Mikumi to grab a quick bite to eat and to check out a snake farm. Not much to say about feeling safe surrounded by poisonous snakes in make shift cages. Those include the black and green mamba as well as Egyptian cobra. The snake farm also had five resident crocodiles. One of which was small enough to hold.

This entire day was phenomenal. Up close and personal with Africa.

Life in Morogoro

So what is it that I do here? Let me tell you.

Most of my time is spent at the local youth centre in an area of Morogoro called Kilakala. The youth centre has a few tiny rooms and a covered concrete slab in the back. Youth come here during the day to hang out. Later in the day we run our programs ranging from English, Youth Leadership, Debates, HIV/AIDS, etc.

This past Friday, we hosted a talent night known as "Ushujaa kwa Uhai." We try to encourage youth to preform songs, dances and rap. Between the acts we incorporate messages revolving HIV/AIDS myths or gender issues.Outside of programming, life is very different. Meals, for example, are served much later than back home. Lunch, chakula cha mchana, is served around 1400 and dinner, chakula cha jioni, around 2100. However, time is also up for debate. There is no structure to punctuality in Tanzania. A program that is scheduled to start at noon may not start until half past. Time is very fluid. That said, the day starts at "Hour 1", or 0700. The Swahili clock start at sunrise, runs 12 hours and then ends at sunset. So 1200 noon in Swahili is actually "Hour 6". It can get very confusing quickly.

So after dinner, people mingle for a bit and then go to bed. Music might still be playing or the TV still running, but just something you have to get used to. Its always noisy. Then in the morning around 0600 the music starts up again and good luck trying to sleep.

Maasai Market

Lindsey and Jessica had tipped us off that there was a Maasai Market taking place just outside Morogoro. The market was on Saturday near Dumila, about an hour ride by Daladala.

That morning Julia, Carla, Katie and I arrived at the Daladala station at 0830. We were nearly the first ones to board. Like I mentioned earlier, the bus won't leave until its full. We waited and waited. One guy was collecting fares and told us it was 3,500Tsh each. So we paid. Later we found out that it was actually only 3,000Tsh. Carla gave him a hard time and made sure he knew that we knew we paid too much. The four of us sat at the back and waited.

1000. Still waiting. People coming up to the windows selling ties, handkerchiefs, water, oranges and what not. We all just wanted to go.

1100. Bus is half full. We start talking about getting off the bus and trying to go again in two weeks. We agree that at 1300 we would walk off the bus.

1230. Bus is full and we think we're OK to go. One passenger keeps walking to the back and squeezes himself between the four of us to find a seat. Let's go already!

1245 and we're off! Any longer and we would have hopped off.

So we sat squeezed in the back seat, tired and hot. Carla made friends with a gentleman in front of her who knew some English. They chatted about politics, religion, I think almost everything. He helped us find our stop and the Maasai Market.

After thanking the man for his help, we saw what we came for. There was a market set up across from the bus stop where Maasai were trading cattle and selling material and jewelry. The Maasai still wear their traditional garments and stretched earlobes, but we found many with ball caps and cell phones. A sign of changing times. We walked around the market and as the only white people there, we were greeted and offered items to purchase without hesitation.

Near the back of the market we found butchered meat, hanging from trees. From what we saw mostly cow, goat and pig. Further up from the meat were tiny huts that covered log burning fires. The meat was skewered and then placed vertically in the ground next to the fire allowing it to cook.

We found a vacant hut with a table and chairs and as it was getting hot in the afternoon, we sat down with some cold drinks, salted skewered meat and bananas. It was all delicious. We didn't move until it was time to find a ride home.

We made our way to the road to catch another Daladala back to town. As soon as we asked, "Which one goes to Morogoro?", Julia's arm was grabbed by four men pulling her in four opposite directions, each to their bus. Talk about supply and demand. The four of us had to hurry and find the cheapest ride back. We ended up paying 10,000Tsh for the four of us and squeezing into the last space on one of the buses. Funny to say the least.

On the ride back we had a flat tire. Yeehaa! So we all got off the bus and waited for the spare to be installed. Along the road, a few Maasai children were watching. Katie and I made our way closer to the children and they slowly backed away. I pulled out my camera and they seemed startled. I managed to take a quick picture and was able to show it to them. They loved seeing themselves. I asked for another picture and Katie was able to get a shot with the kids.
We made it back home, excited from what we had just experienced.

Uluguru Mountains

We made friends with a few locals, Baisa and Andrew, who offered to show us up the mountain. We thought they knew the way up, but apparently they had to stop and ask for directions. This hike would take us halfway up the mountain to an old hotel known as Morning Side.

There are little villages and small crops planted on the hillside. There are banana trees, cabbage patches, and a variety of vegetables. There are also one-of-a-kind species that live in this habitat that are found no where else in the world. I haven't yet learned what they are.Nearing the top we were almost out of water. As soon as we saw Morning Side, we decided that it was too hot to go any further and we made a small picnic lunch of peanut butter sandwiches. Yum!
The Ulugurus rise to 2,630 metres at its highest point. That will be my next challenge.

Here We Come & They Know It

Like I said earlier, its hot. I had to change shirts after leaving the airport in Dar Es Salaam.

First let me introduce to you my fellow companions, Lonny, Julia, Carla and Katie. I'll have to give a quick bio later.

Lindsey and Jessica arranged for a Taxi to take us from the Airport to the Bus Terminal. All seven of us hopped into an old minivan with the driver sitting at the wheel on the right side. In Tanzania, you drive on the left. No seat belts, no traffic lights and certainly no stopping for pedestrians. The short ride to the bus terminal took us through the industrial part of Dar. Just dirty.

At the bus terminal we were told not to get out of the taxi until Jessica had purchased bus tickets for us. Just sitting in the taxi brought dozens of local men to the windows asking to porter our bags or sell us water, snacks, anything. As soon as Jessica came back we were able to park the taxi close enough to the bus to avoid any further hustling. Still, hands grabbed at bags and at the opportunity to make an extra buck. We managed to throw our own bags under the bus and then boarded.

Buses, like the one we were on and Daladalas, small buses, wait until they sell every seat until they leave. In the case of Daladalas, every last breathable space. So we sat, waiting and sweating, before leaving for Morogoro.

The 3-hour bus ride found most of us passed out from the long journey.

In Morogoro, we checked into a small guest house. These first few days were spent at Lindsey and Jessica's to learn more about our programs and about life in Tanzania. They showed us around town and a small place known as Coffee Corner. On a busy corner in town, a young man sets up a few benches and make shift table and two charcoal stoves to boil water. He offers ginger tea and coffee. In the evenings we mingled with locals attempted to understand their arguments about the local soccer teams, Yanga and Simba.

At the end of the week we moved in with our host families. The houses are located in Kilakala, an area of Morogoro. Only the main roads are paved and the rest are filled with holes and washed out from the rainy season. Lonny and I live at the bottom of the hill with Baba John, Mama Ashiraf, Robert (14) and Ashiraf (7). The house has a cement floor and a tin roof, no ceiling. There is living room with T.V., our bedroom, Mama and Baba's bedroom, Robert and Ashiraf's room which doubles as a kitchen, a room with squat toilet and then the bucket shower room. The roof itself has three family under it. And without a ceiling you can technically climb over the walls a peek at the neighbour's dinner table.

Julia, Carla and Katie live a few minutes up the hill. They share one room and also one bed. No one opted for the floor in fear of cockroaches. The live with three Mamas. Their squatter is outside as is the shower stall. Outside their house is a small courtyard with a pool table. It is always busy at their place.

We had the weekend to settle into our new homes before our programs began on Monday.

That's Interesting!

It's been close to one week in Morogoro so let me fill you in.

The entire trek was 3 days. We left Toronto International at 2300 off to Amsterdam. In total there were 14 of us heading in the same direction. Our first flight went smoothly arriving 6 hours later in Amsterdam's Shipol Airport. We decided to take advantage of our 8 hour layover and explore Amsterdam. We said our goodbyes to those heading to Ghana.

From the Airport we took a short 10-minute train ride into the city. As soon as we arrived we noticed how many bicycles and bicycle locks there were. They were everywhere. We strolled around and found Amsterdam to be a beautiful old city criss-crossed with canals. Definitely worth a revisit in the future.

After killing enough time, we boarded our 8-hour flight to Nairobi, Kenya. Everyone was tired and was hoping to catch some sleep. I did manage to sleep, but not nearly enough. So far all my meals consisted of in-flight food. I welcomed it only because I had no idea when my next real feast would be.

Another smooth flight and landing, now we were in Nairobi. But there has to be a hick-up somewhere. Any time now. And it happened in Nairobi. Carla left her passport in the seat pocket
in front of her. She noticed right after we left the gate. Our connecting flight left in less than 1 hour and was already boarding. Carla talked to Airline staff and security to get the damn thing back as fast as possible. Some of us boarded while others stalled the flight for as long as possible. Nearly 20 minutes later, Carla comes running back, passport in hand with us all laughing and anxious to board. We passed through security and left the gate to head onto the tarmac. We even managed to board a flight to Entebbe before we noticed we were on the wrong plane.

The 1-hour flight from Nairobi to Dar Es Salaam took us right over Africa's highest point, Mount Kilimanjaro.

After arriving in Tanzania, and managing only to succeed in getting a visitors Visa and not a Working Visa, we were greeted by Jessica and Lindsey, our project leaders who have been in Morogoro for over 1 year.

We were all very tired and in need of a long lala fofofo, a deep sleep. YCI had arranged for us to stay in a guest house for a few days to help acclimatize. Definitely a great idea.

But it is HOT!