Hospital Time

So today I had my first true experience with the healthcare system in Tanzania.  A student at a Claire's school collapsed, had a seizure, and was unconscious for about an hour.  We are thinking this may be due to cerebral Malaria.  After this occurrence, his friend held him on the back of a motorcycle and they admitted him to the Newala Hospital.  When they arrived, there were no doctors and no real nurses.  Eliezar, a teacher from Kiuta, was carrying him until they finally admitted the boy.  Once admitted, a really shocker happened.  The hospital had no supplies.  This is not just an exaggeration.  All the hospital has is beds, sheets, and mosquito nets.  Claire had to go to the duka la dawa, pharmacy, and buy IV lines, needles, and medication.  Once every thing had been bought, the staff took about 20 minutes to get the IV in him arm.  Claire gave me a call once they had settled and I made my way that way, buying bananas, because get this: the hospital does not feed the patients.   In fact, they do nothing except administer the drugs that you buy yourself.  It depends on the patient's friends and families to feed, take to the bathroom, and clean the patient.  When asked what happens if someone is without family, the response was that they die.  That just goes to emphasize how much people rely on family in the Tanzanian culture.  They share everything: food, money, success, and failure.  In fact, if one person has any success, it falls on them to support the rest of their family.  As great as it is to be close to family and depend upon one another, I can't help thinking that this is a contributor to many of the problems in this country.  I know a guy who is extremely smart and an amazing person.  He is the oldest child and his father has passed away.  Because of this, after A-Level schooling (the equivalent of Junior College), he got his teaching certificate instead of moving on to University so that he could make money and help his younger siblings finish schooling.  It is great for the education system that they got such a remarkable person, but he has so much potential to do much more good for this country.  But, back to the hospital; after the IV was put in, he started to rouse.  After about an hour, he was even able to talk, with difficulty, and drink water and eat some food.  I can only hope that his progress continues.  This trip to the hospital got me thinking about what can be done to improve the overall health care system in Tanzania.  I think really, accountability needs to be addressed first.  I was told that whenever the government comes to inspect, people are fired because they just don't show up to work.  This still does not seem to improve the dependability of the staff though.  Once this has been addressed, then other logistics can be improved, like separating people with TB or contagious diseased, possibly like the man in the corner of the building we were in coughing up blood, from the other patients with already compromised immune systems.  Overall, the entire experience was extremely eye opening and I now understand why the Tanzanian citizens, at least around my area, seem to distrust medical care and tend to opt for solutions provided by witch doctors and superstition.  

Cookin' Tanzo Style

So cooking over kerosene stove, while limiting at times, is still enjoyable.  I love cooking so one of the most enjoyable parts of my day is cooking dinner.  So many people at home may be curious about the options available.  We actually have quite a bit: spinach, eggplant, hot peppers, bell pepper, onions, tomatoes, and potatoes.  I only miss a few things like cheap eggs (eggs are expensive for our budget), milk, cheese, and nice ready-to-cook meat.  I am lucky that I have an amazing family though, because I usually have some packages of tuna for some quick protein.  One of my favorite Tanzanian foods is chapati.  Chapatti is the African version of the Indian naan.  You may also say that it is just a thick tortilla.  Well anyways, I thought it might be fun to show here so if you are interested, you can try it out for yourself!

To make chapatti, you need 3 cups of flour (maybe a little extra to flour the rolling surface), oil, salt, and water.

First, in a bowl, combine 3 cups of flour, a pinch of salt, and about a tablespoon of oil.

Next, add enough water so that you are able to form one elastic ball of dough.

Break off pieces of dough, experiment with the size you want.  Roll out the dough, drizzle a little oil on the dough, and then roll the dough back up and set aside.  I am usually able to form between 8 to 10 balls from one batch.

After oiling all of the dough, set aside for 20 minutes to 1 hour.

After setting aside, roll out the chapattis into reasonably thin circles.  Again, the thickness is mainly up to your own preference. 

Heat about a tablespoon, or less, of oil in a pan.  After it is hot, add a chapatti.

When the chapatti is good and bubbly, it is time to flip.

After you cook them all, you can go traditional and enjoy with a hot bowl of beans, or make wraps.    

So this is just a little taste of Tanzania.  Hopefully more to come!  Bon appetite!  Peace out!

As we go on...We Remember...

First of all, I want to add some pictures of Claire's very successful HIV/AIDs Education/Soccer camp.  I went to Claire's ville last week to help out with this 3-day camp.  The mornings were about 4 hours of HIV Education and Life Skills.  Then in the afternoons, we played around 3 or 4 hours of soccer.  The entire thing was exhausting, but extremely fun.  I also think that the kids took a lot away from it.  I am so glad that I went to help because after seeing the programing and structure, I think I'll conduct this camp at my school.

So there comes a time in every volunteers service that their time here is drawing to an end.  For our 2009 Health and Environment class, that time has come.  Last weekend, we decided to have one last hoorah for our friends.  On Friday, we all made to trip to Mtwara town on the coast.  The beach house had been reserved so we spent a good weekend with friends, internet, and good food with a beach front view.  Not a bad way to go if you ask me.  We shopped, ate at the fish market, swam and celebrated the friendships that we've made in  such a short time.  I know that sounds really corny, but its amazing how quickly good friendships are formed over here.  In such a high stress, foreign environment, we count on each other for support.  I still talk to my family, but there are so many things that I feel I can't tell them.  They are already under so much stress by my being here, I would never want to aggravate that.  Therefore, you end up talking to other volunteers who understand what you are going through and more often than not have gone through the exact same thing.  It is so sad to see this class go, but we can only hope that they aren't replaced with a bunch of weirdos.  Heres hopin'!
In other news, school officially reopened this last Monday.  Hooray for my second term as a teacher.  Time really flies over here, almost exactly 10 months in fact.  Crazy.  Well sorry this was such a sappy post!  Peace out!

50th Anniversary Speech

So last month, Peace Corps Tanzania threw a big shin-dig to celebrate 50 years of Peace Corps.  This means a lot to the program as a whole and we have the honor of serving in one of the oldest programs here in Tanzania.  Love it!  I have been asked so many times why I would ever want to go to Africa, leaving all my friends and family behind.  The following exemplifies the feelings that all Peace Corps Volunteers have about our service.  After hearing this, I felt a renewed sense of purpose and pride.  I hope that all of you enjoy this as much as we did!

PCV Dan Waldron’s speech at the 50^th anniversary celebration - June 22, 2011

 

“Dr. Florens Turuku, Ambassador Lenhardt, Director Williams, Country Director Wojnar-Diagne. Distinguished guests, fellow volunteers, ndugu wenzangu. Take a moment to look around. We are not natural neighbors. We come from different generations, from different states and different countries, from different religions and backgrounds. But tonight we are united in a community of hope, brought together by an unshaken devotion to our common humanity. So it is tonight, and so it was at the beginning of our journey.

 

50 years ago a group of driven individuals arrived in what was then Tanganyika. It wasn’t a country yet, it wouldn’t be for four more months, and when they arrived, they were greeted by a sign which read “Beware the lions” And there we started. But who were these people, these reckless ambassadors? Reading the first curious accounts, the first letters home from a new frontier, one gets a sense of their characters. Who were they? They were George Schreiber, who talked about embodying “ a pioneer type of spirit”. They were George Johnson, who said “Peace Corps exists as an embodiment of a conviction that the best way to achieve global understanding is to put Americans in contact with other nations.” There were 35 of them, engineers, surveyors, and geologists, from Princeton, Harvard, Michigan. And they were drawn together by a man who stood on the steps of Ann Arbor and told the assembled students that based on “your willingness to not merely serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete.” 5 months later, the Peace Corps was signed into law, with Kennedy again telling us that “We will send those abroad who are committed to the concept which motivates the Peace Corps. It will not be easy:”

 

Across the nation, people were moved. They volunteered, they went to boot camp (Drill sergeant and all), and they became the first soldiers in an army of peace. 50 years later, that army has fought poverty, hunger, disease, and subjugation in 139 countries, side by side with peoples of every language, tribe, and religion. Kennedy’s words have outlived him. The army fights on. And though it sometimes feels as though our struggle is never-ending, battles have been won, progress has been made.

 

Yet for all the measurable progress, so much of what Peace Corps does is unquantifiable. There is no box that shows how amazed the children were when the seedlings began to grow, no graph to measure the change that occurred when a woman living with HIV when she realized she had become a leader. And more: how many Tanzanians knew, until the moment they were proven wrong, that Americans could never swing a jembe? How many Tanzanians did not believe that we could dance? And how many of us volunteers never guessed at the number of different ways life could be lived, and lived beautifully, until we came here? We knew about the poverty, but how little did we know about the generosity? These things may be unquantifiable, but they are no less real. Mwalimu Nyerere said "To measure a country's wealth by its gross national product is to measure things, not satisfactions." Many other organizations build more things. Yet I doubt there is another that builds more satisfactions.

 

Now where do we go from here? The goal of our work is to make the continuation of our work unnecessary. We are not there yet, in fact we are nowhere near the limits of our potential. Success is based on expectations, but it is also limited by them, and we are limiting ourselves, and our communities as long as remain prisoners to what Michael Gerson called “the soft bigotry of low expectations”. Let us never tire of pushing ever upwards. We have come so very far, Tanzanian and American alike, still we have so very far yet to go. This is a party to celebrate 50 years of friendship and accomplishment, but it can be more. Let us stand together tonight and take this anniversary as an opportunity to recommit to the spirit of the Peace Corps, to remember the sense of duty that brought us all here, to do better, to go farther, to try harder. We can expect far more from one another, but we can also offer far more of ourselves. American poet Robert Browning wrote, “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” Tonight we have a golden opportunity on this golden anniversary to not set limits on our potential, but rather expand our expectations.

 

I don’t know much. I left America a year and a week ago, and I’m just beginning to realize what I don’t understand. But I love this job. There is nothing like it. I said goodbye to everything and everyone I held dear, climbed onto a plane with a large group of strangers, got pushed out at 30,000 feet, landed, and began to plant trees, dig wells, and teach beekeeping. One day, mungu akipenda, I will get good at my job, at which point it will be time to leave. And after all of that, after the level of insanity I’ve put myself and my loved ones through, the thought that will keep me up at night: is how do I get back to Tanzania?

 

Because somewhere along the way, something changed. We came here as ambassadors from America, to show Tanzanians what America really is. But now…now we have become ambassadors to America, from Tanzania. For the rest of our days we will do all in our power to represent Tanzania: its beauty and its need, its poverty and its riches, its depth of generosity and humanity. The Kiswahili word for together is “pamoja”. It literally means “in one place”. And if that’s the case, none of us will ever be together again. A part of us never left America, the land of the free, the home of the brave. But a part of us will never leave Tanzania, “nakupenda na moyo yote”. That part of us will always be Tanzanian, rising with the sun, gripping the hands of strangers-turned-family, forever exchanging with unguarded smiles the news of the morning.

 

Because Peace Corps is not for everybody. As Kennedy said, “it will not be easy.” It isn’t ea   sy.It is painful, and it is lonely. But none of us here today have to be here. We could be living closer to our loved ones. We could be making more money. We could be cooler, or more comfortable, and God knows we could be cleaner. But each of us decided that there were more important things to us than comfort, that while a ship in the harbor may be safe, that is not what ships are built for. Everyone here tonight, Tanzanian and American, has dedicated a portion of their lives to the belief that with devotion, and kindness, and insistence on a brighter future, change is possible. Everyone here tonight is part of something greater than themselves. We are all soldiers in an army of peace. An army that marches on, as our President Barack Obama said, “with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us.”

A Great Vacation

Last episode of my blog, I left off while sitting in an amazingly Americanized coffee shop in Moshi.  So much as happened since and I have either not had internet or been too lazy to type.  So we hung out in Moshi about a week.  Basically all we did was lounge around and eat all kinds of food.  One day we did muster the strength to venture to the used clothes market, Memoria.  This trip was made a success when I purchased a rather snazzy Patagonia rain jacket.  We also did make a trip to Arusha.  Kathryn and I loaded up onto yet another bus, and made to short trip to Arusha.  After arriving, we had no idea where we were or where the guesti was so we wandered for a good amount of time.  After a suggestion from another volunteer, we finally found a place to stay that was within our budget, which was quite the quest in the jungle of high-end tourist hotels that is Arusha.  After getting to our room, we rested a bit and then later decided to explore the wonders of Shop-Rite.  This extraordinary find is a real-live grocery store.  Overall, we spent over an hour, browsing the aisle upon aisle of rarities such as raspberries, coffee creamer, and fresh-made breads and doughnuts.  Basically we were happier than Charlie was in the Chocolate Factory.  Oh commercial bliss!  After Shop-Rite, a.k.a. "Land o' Plenty," we met up with our friends that had just climbed Mt. Meru at a sushi restaurant.  When I say sushi restaurant, I mean it.  A Japanese expat had settled in Arusha, recruited a real sushi chef, and founded my favorite place in Tanzania.  We had dumplings and sushi and I was a happy, happy volunteer.  The next day, after attempting sushi again (alas the sushi chef has Tuesdays off) we headed back to Moshi.  After a few more days of hanging out, we loaded up onto my 7th bus in much to short of a time, we hopped over to Tanga, a region of the northern coast of Tanzania.  Around 6 1/2 hours later, we met up with all of our friends.  Overall, there were 20 volunteers gathered in Tanga for our 4th of July get-together.  The next day, we went swimming at a beach.  Swimming in Tanzania is always an awkward experience.  Everywhere I have been in this country, there is always a swarm of children, and sometime even adults, wanting to just stare at your glorious whiteness in your swimsuit.  Because of this feeling of being put on display, you must approach swimming with strategy.  First, you must get out of your clothes and wrap a towel around you as quickly as possible.  Next, approach the water fully concealed under your towel.  You must then drop your towel as close to the water as possible without the chance of it getting wet.  Then submerge your body in water up to your shoulders, there-by revealing nothing.  Luckily for our swimming experience this day, we were met by a hoard of other white people so the awkwardness level is significantly decreased.  The next day, on July 2nd, we celebrated the 4th of July early.  A couple of volunteers had arranged a boat to take us out to a sand bar.  We then spent most of the day on the sand bar, eating, drinking, and being merry.  Also swimming in the Indian Ocean.  This section of the ocean proved especially treacherous though.  We had one girl step on a sea urchin and then get to spend a good chunk of the day getting the spikes dug out of her foot and there were also jellyfish about.  The day was wrapped up at Toten Island, the Island of the dead, where there are a number of ancient German graves.  On that next Sunday, Kathryn and I, accompanied by a couple of our friends, bussed down to Dar es Salaam.  When we arrived, there was a bit of confusion and the bus did not stop where we needed it to, hence, we did not get our tickets to head back to Mtwara the next day.  Instead, we gorged on delicious Indian food.  The next day was the 4th of July, so we decided to celebrate with a Subway sub, Twix, and cold Pepsi.  We also went to the bus stand and bought our tickets for the next day.  That night, we celebrated our last night in Dar with Lebanese food.  Nom, nom, nom!!  The next day, we loaded up onto the bus, and headed back to home, sweet Mtwara.  We actually made it in record time too, pulling into Newala at 5:30 p.m.  It was glorious!  The next couple of days, I spent marketing and visiting with people.  I also spent almost an entire day washing my huge number of dirty clothes.  Overall though, there is no better feeling than getting home after a long spout of travel!  That's all for now folks!  Peace out!

BRRRR!!! Iringa!!!!!!!!

So!! As great as Zanzibar was, it was good to get back to the mainland and more reasonable prices. Our feeble Peace Corps salary was not made to go to safi tourist places. When we got back into Dar, we hit up Subway. Sandwiches might be one of the things that I miss most! After that, we napped and then snuck into the center where PC had all the new Education volunteers locked down. We spent a few hours getting to know them which was great! Now we just have to wait 7 weeks to find out who our new neighbors are. On Saturday, we decided to sleep in a bit and catch a later bus to Iringa. We got to the standi, and bought tickets. Well it just so happens we bought tickets on a super nice bus. They even served us cold sodas and water! Talk about service. We got to Iringa Town around 6 and met up with another volunteer, Glenn. We dropped our stuff at the guesti and then went out for Chinese food and a couple of beers. Honestly, the greatest thing about travel is getting to see all of your friends scattered around the country. That night, we also discovered just how cold it gets in Africa. I was wearing my North Face fleece and was still freezing. I slept under the thickest blanket I have ever seen, pants, and my fleece and was still a little cold. Glenn had to leave early the next morning so Kathryn and I slept in and went out for a late breakfast. We went overboard and ended up getting omelettes, french toast, and yogurt. After becoming entirely too full, we decided to hike up to a big rock that has a great view of the entire area. We spent a couple hours hiking up and then took a nice nap, well actually Kathryn napped and I fidgeted. Then we went back to the guesti and napped more (writing this makes me realize just how much we sleep!). That night, we did something that I did not even know was possible in Tanzania, we ordered DELIVERY PIZZA!! It was delicious and actually reasonably priced. That next morning, we had cold pizza for breakfast and then two more volunteers, TJ and Carly, got to town. We went for lunch at this amazing place called Neema's. They have amazing food, we got bacon avocado paninis, and also have cool crafts. The entire establishment is staffed by disabled Tanzanians. For example, the entire serving staff is deaf. It was amazing to see a business that allows Tanzanians with handicaps to support themselves. Elswhere in the country, their only option is begging. That day and the next day, we spent playing board games and hanging out at Neema's and spending way too much money on food and crafts. Iringa was a plethra of handmade products!! The motherload for a craft-lovin fool like myself. Also, Iringa is full of yummy food. A Peace Corps Volunteer must! I even had a warm cinnamon roll and homemade yogurt, am I in Africa anymore? Yesterday morning, we loaded up onto yet another bus bound for Moshi and almost exactly 12 hours later, made it! So far, I've had a bacon bagel and 2 cups of real coffee!!! Sorry if this blog seems a little scatter-brained!! Blaim it on my caffeine high! Thats about it for Iringa. Tune in next time for the down-low on Moshi! Peace out!

Island Paradise

So after my ever so exciting bus ride, nothing could have been more welcome than a relaxing trip to Zanzibar. For those of you who are not familiar with this African paradise, Zanzibar is a short ferry ride off the coast of Tanzania. The island is covered with Spice Plantations and white sand beaches. The main town is called Stone Town and thats where we have stayed for 5 nights. The town is amazing! It is made up entirely of alleyways, so it is easy to spend an entire day, walking around getting lost. Zanzibar is such a strange collision of worlds. The island is 98 percent Muslim, so all native inhabitants are extremely conservative. With the boom of tourism in the last 10 to 15 years though, a swarm of skantily clad tours are mixed among the women in head scarves and full covering. When asked about what he thought a booty shorts and bare shoulders, a local Muslim man compared it to drinking alcohol. He said that the first time you taste it, it is not good, but as you continue, it gets better as you get used to it. Now what a man of Islam knows about drinking I have no idea, but he got his point across. Here is a run-down of our days here in our island paradise.
Sunday: On Sunday, Kathryn and I got up and were just going to wing it. It turns out we caught the 9:30 ferry. Of course, we left around 10. Its about a 2-hour ride and I ended up popping a Dramamine. As soon as land was out of sight, my motion sickness popped up and threatened to make it a messy ride. We hit land around noon. We had a friend from Pemba, an island just north of Zanzibar, meet up with us and also another volunteer, Eric, and his friend from the states. Kathryn and I had made reservations at a hotel called Zenji Hotel. We went and dropped our stuff off when we arrived. This hotel is incredibly cute. If I had one word to describe it, I would say "quaint." The best part has to be the roof. They serve a complimentary breakfast on the roof and even met us with complimentary drinks when we arrived. The breakfast is to die for: homemade breads, homemade jams, fruit, fresh juice, eggs, and REAL coffee!! Quite the spread for someone who has been living in the bush for 9 months. After we put all of our stuff in the hotel, our group went to just walk around a bit and hang out on the beach. We ate lunch(Chili Guacamole Burger!!) and the boys got fed up with Kathryn and I's shopping (although you should really call is browsing since our budget doesn't allow us to actually get anything). That night, we decided for just street food instead of a sit-down place. We had some pretty good Tandori chicken and hung out.

Monday: Monday, we got up, filled our bellies with breads and jams, and went on a Spice Tour. For something that sounds extremely touristy, it was well worth the money. They bus you about 30 minutes north of Stone Town and you visit one of the several local Spice plantations. You walk around the grounds and are shown more spices than I have ever seen: pepper vines, cinnamon trees, vanilla, ginger, tumeric, star fruit, nutmeg. Basically everything a well stocked kitchen would have. While showing us, they let us taste everything and told us about processing, harvesting, and even traditional medicinal uses. After the tour, they took us to some ruins, and then lunch. Lunch was pilau (spiced rice) that was prepared with all of the spices we had just seen. After lunch, they took us to this extremely secluded, beautiful beach and we explored a cave where they used to illegally hold slaves before shipping them out. After all of this, we showered back at the hotel, and went out for a nice dinner for the boys' last meal on the island. We found a rooftop restaurant called House of Spices that processes all of their own spices and makes DELICIOUS pizza in a brick oven right next to the table. After dinner, the boys left to catch their overnight ferry back to the mainland and Kathryn and I enjoyed a relaxing night on the roof of the hotel.

Tuesday: On Tuesday, Kathryn and I decided to shop. Well for normal people, this would not be a problem, but most of what we saw exceeded our meager Peace Corps budget. All the same, it was fun to just walk around the narrow alleys and have no clue where you are. We did find a lady that was amazing at henna and would do it for a reasonable price. So after getting henna, we met up with Claire and her visiting boyfriend, Rob. We had lunch at a fun little Indian restaurant. After that, we headed back to the hotel to nap and play on internet. That night, Kathryn and I went and had some beers on the beach and then decided to try out Zanzibar pizzas. This is not like a pizza at all, but really tastes like a hamburger. They take dough, fill it with meat, vegetable, and mayonaise and cook it in a wok. Sounds weird, but it was pretty tasty.
Wednesday: Wednesday, we decided to take a day trip out of Stone Town. We hopped on a dala dala to a town on the northern tip of the island called Nungwi. We spend the day relaxing on the beach at a resort. It would have felt like a completely different country, enjoying sangria and guacamole, if it had not been for the Masai that had parked his cattle on the beach next to the sun bathers. It was an intersting sight. After our skin got about as much sun as it could handle, we caught another dala dala back, showered, and went out for seafood. Kathryn started not feeling great and I was tired so we headed in early (we are such party animals, right?) and internetted and went to bed. Just give a Peace Corps volunteer wifi internet and they are satisfied.
Thursday (today): So far today, we have slept a lot and eaten breakfast. I think I might try to make it to one museum called the House of Wonders later, and also buy our ferry tickets for tomorrow. Tonight, we have plans to meet a volunteer that lives on the island for dinner. As an overall assessment, if you ever have the chance or for some reason are in Tanzania, visit Zanzibar. It is a beautiful place and a unique experience. Thats it for now! I'll try to keep you updated on the rest of our travels. Peace out!