Saturday, October 21, 2006

Serengeti Safari






If the only thing you ever get to do in your life is take one trip, it should be to Africa, to take a safari. Safari in Swahili actually just means ‘journey’ but we mzungu have turned it into a fashionable word that conjours up all sorts of visions. We toured with a company called “predator”, which aptly describes a lot of what we saw….lions, lions, and, more lions. They were Roman’s favorite animal on the trip and although most of the time they are lying in the grass sleeping beside a fresh kill or stalking a zebra that they plan to kill, they really aren’t doing much. They have no real enemies and you can tell. They lumber along and lie around all day in the sun and then hunt at night. Our guide ‘Moro’ was very knowledgeable and pointed out early on that the females do all the work. They stalk and usually take down the prey and then the male (or males) eat it. The women get to chow down when the men are done…..I got a lot of mileage out of that one.
My favorites were the giraffes and the elephants. They are so incredibly beautiful and gentle. It takes hours to get right into the centre of the park and our tour company booked us a night at the Seronera Serengeti Safari Lodge. It is a lodge in the middle of the Serengeti built on a natural pile of volcanic rock called Kopjes. The animals roam all around the hotel and the rooms have screens open to the air at the top of the room so you can hear the wildlife. That night happened to be one of my nights of insomnia (it is a long story but basically I was awake for three nights in a row and then read the side effects list of my anti-malarial pills and realized I had all of them). I lay awake all night listening to the most incredible symphony of sounds. At one point I heard heavy footsteps trampling outside the window and woke Roman up. We both decided it was probably the zebras who were hanging around on the lower part of the property that we had seen earlier. There was a bit of loud grunting and chomping going on that could have passed for zebra but I had my doubts. I was picturing a group of elephants out there, or, even better, a herd of rhinos (probably hallucinating from the drugs!)…but, in the morning when we arrived for breakfast, the chatter in the dining room was about the herd of HIPPOS that were circling the property during the night and eating the long grass outside our windows. Ok, so I wasn’t hallucinating!
One British man looked like he was going to have a stroke while he was telling the story of getting out of bed and lighting the candle (yes, there are periods here when we have no electricity or generator power) and looking out the window at a giant animal lumbering past!
I will list the animals that we saw (not including all birds because there are just too many species to remember): hippos, rhinos, zebra, jackals, cheetah, leopard, lions, elephant, giraffe, hyena, warthog, ostrich (and 9 babies in tow), flamingo, storks, herons, hawks, eagles, wildebeest, baboons, chimpanzees, Dick Dicks, gazelle, impala and the list goes on…our pictures don’t do it justice, nor would my description of the amount of sand in our hair when the game drive was over.

The Masai





When you arrive at Kilimanjaro airport you are essentially at the start of one of the best areas in Africa to take a safari and see all kinds of wildlife. Kili airport is about an hour from Arusha which is considered one of the step off points for the Serengeti National Park , Tarangire National Park, the Ngorogoro Crater and farther up, the Masai Mara. From the minute you leave the airport, you are in a savannah like zone of dry grass and grazing herd of cattle and goats. The shepherds who herd these goats are the Masai people who are semi-nomadic and traveled traditionally up and down the Serengeti Plains. The plains stretch from the Masai mara (northern Serengeti) in Kenya up to the Nile delta and down into Tanzania. The majority of them live in Tanzania and they really are one of the most unique things about this country. I have tried to understand as much of their history as I could get from asking questions and reading some guidebooks but they are still so mysterious. They are trying to be ‘integrated’ in some ways by the Tanzanian government because they have such a low life expectancy (they will not go to hospital and use western medicine) and they have almost no education. A number of years ago the Tanzanian government tried to improve living standards for the Masai by providing free education and free health care (a bone of contention since these things are not really available to the general population of Tanzanians). They have allowed some fo their young to go to school but strict tradition requires that they return to the community to take on leadership roles etc…now, I need to add, they have mostly only allowed their men to go to school…sound familiar… and even then, it is only a select few. We visited a Masai village (you pay the chief to enter and the money is used apparently for water and other basic items). The chief took us around the village and answered most of my questions. Masai men take more than one wife from outside their clan and therefore have many children within their clan. They are very strict on maintaining old traditions (in dress and housing which are very primitive) but I did catch a glimpse of his mobile phone tucked into his leather belt next to his spear!! The men herd the animals across the plains in search of food (ie. Grass, preferably green..although they have had a lot of drought lately). The women build the huts and fences and fires and kill the meat and cook the meat and mind the children…but are the property of their husband and subject to orders and ridicule from more senior wives…need I say more.
The children were beautiful and wanted to touch us and my hair and necklace, earrings etc. They did a tribal dance to welcome us (I am sure the entrance fee helped!), but nonetheless, they see tourism as a way to make a living too and it was a really awesome experience to see. We must have passed hundreds of villages just like it along the way to the Serengeti. They dot the landscape everywhere in that region of Tanzania. They are allowed to graze their animals in the Ngorogoro Crater but not in the Serengeti park itself as it is a recognized UNESCO world heritage site and very well preserved.
One sad thing about the new world careening with the old Masai world is HIV (sorry to make this such a depressing theme, but it really is a big issue here in Africa that you cannot escape). When those Masai men go off to the city to get further education beyond their clan, they also encounter HIV. When they return to their village as tradition dictates, they can spread the virus to all of their wives. One of the nurses I met, who works just with HIV/AIDS also said that in Masai tradition, if a Masai man is traveling with is herd, he can go to another village to seek shelter and food. If there is a woman there who’s husband is absent (also traveling with their animals) she is expected to feed the man and shelter him and as luck would have it, provide other pleasures if necessary….so the story of HIV spreading in Africa continues..it really has no boundaries.

People (and women) in Tanzania

Aside from the animals seen in the Serengeti (more on that to come), the thing that has been the most fascinating to me is watching the people of Tanzania and how they go about their day. The interaction between men and women is very different from in Canada. When you pass an open air market and look at the crowd you can’t help but notice that most of the men and women are not together. Now, what I mean by this is that the women congregate with the women and the men with the men. The men tend to be doing manual labor types of jobs and the women are generally selling something (oranges, ‘Goodwill shoes’, lettuce, bananas)usually just one or two items is all they have. Small children will be strapped to the ‘Mama’s back (all women who have a child in Tanzania earn the right to be called Mama..I for example could easily be called Mama Karen). The title of Mama, from what I gather, really explains a lot about the culture. Women here are born to become someone’s wife and ultimately someone’s mother. Women in Tanzanian culture are in many ways, non-people. They hold very few positions of power and are among the poorest in the country. When a woman marries here, she becomes the property of her husband. Her job is to look after him and raise the children. At face value, that doesn’t sound too bad, but the problems happen when she chooses to leave the marriage or when he dies. She, being a non-person, can be left in a very precarious position, as she may not be welcomed back to her own family (to live under her father’s roof) as she is considered a burden. She may become the ‘property’ of her husband’s brother, if he chooses to take her in. Her role in that household would be to work. When issues such as HIV/AIDS come into the mix, things get complicated. You see, it is not uncommon for married men to have extra-marital affairs here and this can be a source of HIV infection for many women. When a woman’s husband dies, she may be left destitute as no one will take her or her children in. I have been told by several women here that in these situations, if/when she dies of AIDS, which she in all likelihood has contracted from her husband, no one will provide a place for her to be buried because traditionally she should have been buried on the land she shared with her husband (which in many situations, has been confiscated by one of her husband’s male relatives)….and so on, I think you probably get the picture, so I’ll say no more. (and for those of you who know me, know I could go on for hours about this kind of stuff…I just can’t help myself)

Kilimanjaro Climbers

We have been out of civilization for a few days…and what an amazing few days it has been. After spending time at Kilema Hospital and sorting out some details regarding the HIV clinic we met up with the Kingston group who were climbing Kilimanjaro.Of the 6, 5 of them made it to the summit and 1 to the point just below. She had to turn back (rather, she was turned forcefully around, by a very astute porter who recognized altitude sickness), she had to get off the mountain. I have never seen a group of people more exhilarated and beaten up all at the same time. They had minus 40 with the wind chill at the top as a storm blew in on summit night. I guess that is unusual for Kili but not unheard of. They had 19 porters and guides who ‘helped’ get them to the top. You cannot climb the mountain without a licensed guide because of conservation issues and safety. Rumor has it (and they keep this quite a secret so as not to affect future climb business) that 18 climbers have died on the mountain so far this year. Almost all from altitude sickness. The porters told our friends that many climbers are so hell-bent on getting to the top that they refuse to listen. The majority of climbers who have died this year are young Japanese people…maybe something about honour and saving face there, but who really knows. The porters and guides cannot forcefully remove people until it is basically too late. And, anyway, where are you going to go when they get you off if you already have cerebral or pulmonary edema? The nearest hospital is ill-equipped to deal with those kinds of things (flashback to my blog regarding the lack of an oxygen concentrator at Kilema Hospital!). Well, we had a celebratory dinner that night at the Marangu Hotel, the oldest establishment at the mountain base that has seen many climbers come and go (many famous ones too if you look at their log books). Roman is really considering it now, having seen it (the mountain) and the group, after their successful (ie. No one died) climb. They had incredible pictures of the porters (quite small nimble men) carrying a weeks worth of eggs and frozen chicken and a fold-up table and chairs etc…all on their head, which is the most common place for any Tanzanian to carry whatever they are transporting. I missed a picture the other day of a guy with a sofa (I am serious) on his head and his friend had all the cushions!! Those porters and guides get about 1 trek per month in season and are a perfect example of the hierarchy of life in Tanzania. The head guide, who is the most educated and speaks the best English, gets paid about $30 US per day. The assistant guides, also fairly educated about guiding and who speak pretty good English get about $20 US per day. All the other porters, have less education (in varying degrees) an, less of a command of English, get $15 US per day…...and this is considered a good job, one worth risking your life for.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Goodwill Shoes




Well, it has been another two interesting days.
Roman and I went to the Cradle of Love Baby Home yesterday. It is this Oasis for abandoned babies. I called it Orphan Baby Club med. It is run by a woman named Davona who is an American. She has been in Africa for a number of years having had her first 'baby home' in Malawi. She is funded through private donations through her church and now has a string of volunteers from around the world who come to help with the babies. The volunteers usually go home and fund raise for the home so the money just seems to roll in (like a 'pay it forward' phenomenon) and Davona and her babies survive. I have attached a picture of a special baby feeding station they have made in the vocational training that Davona's husband runs. They train Tanzanian men skills in wood working. All the cribs and change tables were made in their program. I have attached a picture of the feeding table. These babies were so beautiful. There were 28 in total, but the numbers fluctuate. Some were tiny (days old) as she had just picked them up at the government hospital 2 days before after their mothers had abandoned them (many reasons why this happens but it would take more than this blog but mostly HIV, poverty, cultural issues). She names the babies herself. There was one named Moses who was found at the side of the road under a tree. There was a toddler named Tyson who was the tallest baby they had, named after Mike Tyson.

We took the Arusha Coaster bus to get to the Baby Home. (Mom: don’t read this part. It was the scariest bus ride I have ever taken nor will ever take again. They fill a rickety bus with way too many people and then drive it at speeds they shouldn’t, while blaring an African beat version of Shania Twain or Bob Marley). The bus fills with carbon monoxide as it travels along. We were on it for several hours and probably shaved a few weeks of our life just by pollution alone. The fact is that this is the way that the majority of Tanzanians must travel. Only the upper middle class and wealthy own cars. The other mode of transportation that we took home from Kilema hospital is the Dalla Dalla. This is a Toyota minivan called a Hiace that should fit 8 people safely. The average Dalla Dalla carries about 15 people not counting the driver and the young chap that hangs out the door yelling for customers as you pass though villages back to Moshi. The music is blaring all the while and the whole thing petty much smells like body odor. Deodorant is a luxury here and I haven’t met that many people who are wearing it! Just so you get the full picture, I need to also add that the lady next to me was holding a chicken.

The title of today’s entry is Goodwill shoes because I really think that it is something to tell about. Have you ever wondered where all the shoes that you give to the Goodwill go? Well, I can tell you that most of them are in Tanzania, being worn by Tanzanians. I’ll try to get a picture tomorrow but basically, the side of the road vendors are selling these shoes by the dozens. They wash them and polish them and put white paint on the running shoes and spend their day making these things look like new….and they really do. You can look around most of the vendors tables and see T shirts and purses and shoes that North Americans have given away. Now, I am pretty sure these guys buy the shoes from some middle man who is making a lot of money off our ‘stuff’. But, the shoes look really good by the time these guys clean them up. Tanzanians can by a pair for about $4 US dollars. A little food for thought the next time you give away your shoes.

Next topic: Women in Tanzania

Special Message to Jack: Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday Dear Jack! Happy Birthday to you!
See daddy in the picture with your gift.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Kilema Hospital




It has been a busy couple of days. We are now oriented to Moshi and made our way (via old Land Rover) to the Kilema hospital where the HIV clinic that CACHA is building is in progress. The building of the clinic has gone slower than planned (well slower than the Canadians planned). It will be able to house a discpensary for ARV's, a classroom for counselling and teaching and a lab for testing. There is minimal in the way of HIV infrastructure here. Well, really, there is very little of any infrastructure. The hospital is spotlessly clean but extremely primitive. The wards hold 6-8 patients each and the 'ICU' (picture to be attached tomorrow) consisted of three hospital beds (like real beds that we migth have in the basement storage of a North American Hospital) and no oxygen or monitors...just a room called ICU with extra space for a nurse to stay at the bed side. Sister Clarissa, the hospital matron is looking for a donation of an oxygen concentrator and a pulse oxymeter. These are things she could use to try to keep people alive while they wait for medications to start working. They are starting to see fewer acute deaths from HIV because the ARV's (1 or 2 drugs) are available through the Global Fund to fights HIV/AIDS, Malaria and TB. They still have many people living in the villages surrounding the hospital who cannot or will not come to the hospital to be treated. The stigma of HIV is still very difficult to live with here. The sad thing is that many of the young women are pregnant and need to be treated during delivery to minimize transmission of the virus to there babies. The hospital (with CACHA) has a PMTCT program now up and running but they need to get the word out and get the women treated. Sister is so resourceful that she has a group of local Tanzanian volunteers who do 'homebased' care and go out to the villages to find sick people to get them to the treatment program or to return weekly with therapy for them once they have been confirmed with testing. The hospital is in desperate need of everything including simple things like blankets. The nights are cold in that stone building (they are on the side of the mountain). Most of the beds had a flimsy wool blanket that was not big enough to cover people's feet.
The orphan program now has 300 orphans in it. They currently come on the last Friday of the month to be 'checked over' and get tea and bread. They take home with them some basic supplies to get them through (rice, cooking oil, soap etc). Ahmed, who is on site working for CACHA right now is setting up a system to track the orphans (who they are, where they are from, HIV status and other health issues). They want to break up the group into weekly groups of 50-60 kids so they can spend more time with them and provide more care. The sister's do their best but some weeks they have very little to give the orphans to eat. Some have walked several kilometres to get there in the hopes of a small hand out. There is nothing else I can really say, we really just don't realize how lucky we are. It is hard to describe what it is really like. These people really do live with NOTHING but the clothes they have on and a small shelter.

On a positive note, the hospital grounds and the trip to Kilema were quite beautiful. I will attach some pictures tomorrow.
More to come tomorrow...

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Moshi

We had a day in Moshi with Greg John from Canada-Africa Community health Alliance today (CACHA). He has been here since last April and is working to get CACHA's various projects off the ground and keep those existing ones running. He lives in a house that he had built for him...well not quite but his housing experience is a great example of how things can be made to work here. While Greg was here last year (and in knowing that he would be returning for a year) he arranged his lodgings for the following year with a local man. The situation was that he had a half built house and no money to finish it. He determined that he needed about 800 US dollars to get it done. Greg made a deal that he woul dgive the money up front and that the house would have to be ready when he returned in 6 months. He also negotiated the first 8 months rent for free..it is about 100US per month to rent a place here (if you are a Mzungu-white person who need sa white persons basic comforts).
Greg tookus to an interesting NGO today called Kilimanjaro Porter Assistance project. They have been here a few years and work (along with a few inspired Tanzanians) to raise awareness about the porters who work on the mountain. These young men (who carry all the tourists bags) make a very small wage and have poor training and protection from the elements. Unlike the 'sherpas'you hear about at Everest, these guys are not acclimatized and can get altitude sickness/frostbite etc just like everyone else. Only thingis, they are usually sent down the mountain (carrying a bag or two) without pay. The tourists usually are unaware of how badly the porters are treated and this group believes that if people knew they would choose tour companies with good porter treatment reputations more willingly. They also educate the porters as well with classes in English, guman rigand first aid. This group is of course not welcomed by all the tour companies, but at least now after three years they are doing more negotiating and have recognized a minimum wage etc for the porters. One died last week, probably of pneumonia and pulmonary edema (altitude sickness in the lungs).

On a lighter note, we thought we should tell you about the 'sellers'. but this will be the subject of our next blog....

Friday, October 13, 2006

Arusha Coffee Lodge


Well, it has been another eventful 2 days. Roman and I flew yesterday from Dar to Kilimanjaro Airport...another mile high sighting of Mount Kili made it worth it. Kili airport is half way between Moshi and Arusha. We were lucky to have a bus to transport us to Arusha that was provided by the airline. Some interesting characters wanted to give us the 1hour lift and I am not entirely sure where we would have ended up. We went on a whim to a place called the Arusha Coffee Lodge. It is a hotel with 21 individual cottages set within the coffee plantation (coffee is a big export for this area of Tanzania). The lodge was a welcome site after travelling through Arusha and its outskirts. It is actually quite a tropical place (which is odd because the land around it looks like what you migth picture in an African film about the Serengeti).

Let me also say, Roman and I are still unable to grasp the amount of poverty. We feel an indescribable guilt about having what we have. There are people everywhere who look like they need 1. Food 2. a bath 3. a medical check-up. The kids are the hardest to look at. I don't know how to describe it any other way....but, despite this, many have smiles and are just going about their day..trying to survive. Today is our last 'cushy' day staying at a real hotel. The next week or so will be up at the hospital in Kilema and surrounding area. HIV is definitely here as well but it is not openly discussed (ie. billboards etc) as in some other African countries but if you ask people they will talk about it and how it has affected them.

As it was our last day of time to ourselves/vacation, Roman and I decided to do something a little off the beaten track. We went into Arusha and went to the United Nations building where the Rwandan War Crimes Tribunal is still ongoing (how many years now). We traded in our passports for a visitors pass and went to one of two court rooms that had proceedings ongoing. Dad, I know you would have loved it. It was really, really interesting. Everyone was in formal court attire (robes etc) and we got a headset with English translation. They had a concealed witness in the witness stand who was being examined and cross-examined about the goings on in an area of Rwanda at the time of the genocide. We gathered that he was an army officer who would have witnessed various meetings etc of higher up officers who might have been involved in carrying out orders to kill. The discussion was very circular and people burst out laughing at times , including the judge. The witness was clearly afraid of having words put in his mouth and he refused to acknowledge some obvious things (Example: Look at this picture, Mr Witness, does the roof not look slanted to you? No, I cannot say that it looks slanted, I was not there.etc etc...the judge eventually asked him to admit what everyone else in the room could see in the picture...the roof was slanted!!!). We could have stayed all day as it really was more interesting than that. I guess this was where Romeo Dallaire would have testified. We are going to the airport tonight to meet Greg John from CACHA and Danielle Trudeau, the law student who will stay here until January to work onthe project. I am looking forward to seeing Moshi and Kilema....it has been a real eye opener so far.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Boona Baana Centre for Children's Rights




Yesterday we made our way to an area of Dar called Sinza Mori. This is where the Green Door Home is located and the Boona Baana centre. The centre is run by a couple named Brooke and Marco. She is from the American South (via Hong Kong) and he is from Chile (via Taiwan). They met in Chinese language classes in Hong Kong and eventually (through a long story) ended up in Dar and opened a centre for children's rights. They have 12 orphans at present and are funded entirely through private donations and helo from volunteers from all over who come and stay from time to time to help out withthe children. Brooke has a keen interest in trying to make adoption of children in Tanzania more 'streamlined'. Right now it is a complicated, difficult process and with 2 million orphans here, it woul dbe good to be able to get them adopted. The children were so friendly and immediately asked questions about us, our children and home. I showed them pictures of Jack and Hannah playing in the fall leaves before we left Kingston. They kept saying Hannah is nice, yes? They enjoyed having me take their picture and then immediately wanted to see it on the digital screen. They played a rowdy game of soccer (football) with Roman in the yard with a pretty bad soccer ball. It was a fun time. Marco took us to a Mzungu (white) area for seafood called Sea Cliff. This is basically the compound where ex-patriots live and socialize. I felt like I had entered a different country.
Roman and I are on our way today to Kilimanjaro Airport. We will spend a day in Arusha, the site of the Rwandan Genocide Tribunal. We might go to Kilema Hospital this weekend after meeting up with Greg John tomorrow and we'll meet with Elizabeth Minde next week to discus the start-up of the women's project. Nothing here happens in any kind of rapid pace....it happens on Tanzanian time according to Brooke. It could take half a day to go to the post office and mail a letter. Tanzanians are friendly people though. I think i talk a little bit too fast for them as i keep having to repeat myself.
Thats all for now.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Culture shock 101

Well, we arrived in Dar es Salaam this morning. The flight from London was fine (despite being overnight!) because we got the thrill of flying past Mount Kilimanjaro at sunrise. The peak, with the huge snow capped crater poked through the clouds in a very surreal and un-natural way. It really was beautiful. I thought the plane would tip sideways with all the passengers crowding to one side to have a look. Wow.

"Dar" as it is known here is hot and crowded with people. I thought we would run over at least two different pedestrians as we drove from the airport to the hotel today. This city reminds me of somewhere else..just not sure where. It might be that it is perhaps like many major cities in third world countries with a few large office buildings and hotels but mostly crumbling facades and dust and wild animals eating garbage and people...everywhere.
This city is mostly Muslim (as is most of the Eastern part of Tanzania) and we could see that in the way people were dressed. Women are fairly conservative but not with major face coverage or Burquas, just more conservative. We also saw some tall thin people resembling what I pictured to be Masai (like those in most Serengeti safari pictures). I later learned they were Masai...having come to the big city like everyone else, out of necessity to earn a living and feed their families.
We have learned (and tried) some Swahili.
Karibu means welcome
Assante means Thanks
Assante sana means many thanks
Habari means Good Day but when it has a suffix such as Habari Zemchanna (probabably misspelled) it means good afternoon or good night etc..depend son the suffix.
The main language here is Swahili but English is required to some degree in all schools.

The most important word we learned (but actually knew of before we got here) is Mzungu or white person. And, that is what we are ...no matter how you slice it...we stick out.

Our hotel is called the Golden Tulip and by Tanzanian standards is quite fancy. It sits on a cliff on the Indian Ocean acroos a bay from the down town area. The beaches on the North and South side of Dar are quite beautiful. The ferry to Zanzibar leaves from near where we are staying. This will be our 'breaking in' period, to ease into the culture, because, in two days we head for Moshi (near Kilimanjaro) to meet Greg John (from CACHA) and Elizabeth Minde (of KWIECO). Elizabeth is partnered with us for our HIV women's health project (Prevention Through Empowerment). I am sure she will be an excellent resource for us and we hope to be able to help her expand on her in improving women's rights in Tanzania.

More tomorrow on our visit to the Boona Baana Children's rights centre and The Green Door Home Orphanage. We will visit with Marco and Brooke there tomorrow and take them for dinner. We met them today at our hotel to discuss Tanzanian adoption. We also met their two adopted daughters, Masai and Elba.

More on Dar tomorrow...time for dinner now (or is it breakfast or is it lunch?).
We already miss all of you but we are excited about our journey...
Jack and Hannah: we miss you and hope that Hannah had a good birthday yesterday. We will take lots of pictures so that we will be able to tell you about what we have seen.

Thursday, October 05, 2006



Welcome to our blog. We hope you enjoy reading about our trip to Tanzania and beyond!