Saturday, October 31, 2015

How I fail as an adult in Tanzania....

For someone with an ego of my size, it is hard to even practice to speak another language with people who speak it because my fail rate is near 99% over the last month. It might be 98.6%.  But, in the spirit of the internet let me illuminate you to other more embarrassing things that I've failed/am failing at over the first month I've been here.



  • Simple civilities- In Swahili there are so many civilities that sometimes I don't understand if they're asking me if I have "issues/problems" to which you usually say no, or if they're asking how I'm doing which is usually good... I hope I get this straight soon, it's about time!
  • Finding toilet paper- Our organization had to send another intern with us to find some after we had been unsuccessful at looking for over a week and a half on this time sensitive subject.
  • When I hand wash my laundry, my rinse bucket is just as dirty as my wash bucket... I don't know how I fail so hard at this.
  • When out in restaurants, my go-to is fried chicken and fries (chips na kuku or sometimes called chipsikuku- don't know if there are spaces). Essentially, this feels like chicken strips and fries which seems to be the go-to for parents ordering for their kids at the restaurants I've worked at.
  • I step on people's feet on the dala dala buses (public transport, privately owned, maybe some government regulation?). I unfortunately am not as graceful as I'd like to think and man can those buses get packed! A lady swam through people (including myself) the other day, it was amazing.
  • Keeping enough change so that the bus conductor isn't scrambling for it, or having to use up all of his.  There are desks full of change at some bus stops that men sell to bus conductors for a price, therefore change is almost always preferred. Hoard it, and always have some in case the conductor does not have enough or suffer the consequences of paying more.
  • Trying to remember to look around before entering the bathroom.  There may not be toilet paper in it but outside of it. Also trying to keep in mind there may not be soap at every sink, or a running sink but more often than not people wash their hands before they eat because they eat with their hands. Don't give up, explore where it is.
  • High-fives are more often low-fives here. I don't know why they are low fives, but I've been terrible at them because for high-fives I usually use the trick of looking at someones elbow to judge, and this just throws my game off completely

Oh I hope this list doesn't get longer but it probably will ... Stay tuned.

More Deets On Why I'm Here

Dear everyone and anyone out there,  My original post about Mazuka was a little light on the details so I'd like to talk more about what I'm actually doing in Tanzania, Africa!  I've been honoured to be chosen on one of the few paying internships available funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development as well as the Get Youth Working Program.  I was granted the privilege of being sponsored through an amazing organization called VIDEA (Victoria International Development Education Association) who was approved for funding to send me on this amazing experience. VIDEA works with partner organizations in East and South Africa and believe in a human rights based approach to development (as opposed to a charity-based approach). I have the additional privilege of being the first VIDEA intern (with my roommate) at this particular organization, the Children's Dignity Forum (CDF).  

CDF is run by a small number of people and is nothing short of ambitious.  They are the secretariat for Girls not Brides Tanzania chapter, called TECMN- Tanzania End Child Marriage Network and have received international recognition and support from the UN, DFID UK and other national aid donors.  They are also involved with the Children’s Agenda, Tanzania Child Rights Forum, and have a program called MenEngage that is a part of the larger network of MenEngage Africa. The work they do is truly amazing.  They hold community meetings with stakeholders to address children’s issues, resources and support services for people living with HIV/AIDS and fighting stigma and teaching law and human rights for people that cannot access the rights that protect them.  They physically support child mothers and child brides with entrepreneurship skills and start up working tools to start their own business and earn an income. They are front-runners in including and promoting children's governance structures like the Junior Children's Council (JCURT), which aims to put children's issues on the agenda.  They are a partner in the Children's Agenda that lobbies and advocates for better and clearer laws that protect children in Tanzania.  They are also leaders in pushing and advocating for ending child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).  These two are very closely related because in Tanzania, and elsewhere, FGM is considered a rite of passage, and after this rite of passage girl children are ready for marriage.  The ages that girls go through FGM can be from 9-18 years old.  Unfortunately, there is evidence, probably from such strong advocacy, that more parents are getting their children cut under the age of 9 and even before 1. The negative attention this Harmful Traditional Practice (HTP) has garnered in recent decades is probably a factor in this among others such as being more easily manageable than an adolescent or pre-teen girl who may or may not have been exposed to anti-FGM messages like those from CDF.  After this rite of passage, in some areas it is bad luck if girls are not married within two years hence girls as young as 11 become married. Nationally, 2 out of 5 women are married before the age of 18 making Tanzania have one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world (UNICEF, 2012). The complications to this practice are extensive and not just short term but have long term negative consequences. FGM can cause infertility due to chronic infections in the pelvis, bladder, trouble urinating or incontinence, shock, septicemia, HIV/AIDS if proper sterilization is not used, painful intercourse, painful and difficult childbirth and can be fatal for girls, women, mothers and/or their children. All of this with no benefits to the woman other than powerful cultural perceptions beauty, purity and being eligible to marry.  Which, in practically all cultures, is still a huge motivator for a range of harmful practices that people including adult women all over the world consensually participate in as children and as adults that can have devastating and sometimes fatal effects for them. I do not wish to alienate anyone here if they have undergone FGM.  For some girls growing up with the practice, they were excited about it, they wanted to be a woman, they wanted to be desirable according to their own standards, they may have had the procedure with sterilized equipment and not been held down with extra trauma to the genitals and they may have not had any medical complications after like incontinence from damage to the urethra.  They may also have healed properly without constant re-infection and recovery time may only have been a month or two. They had relatively easy births because the type of FGM they underwent was not the severe type and scar tissue was not built up making delivery hard.  They may also still enjoy sex and do not feel as if that had been taken from them.  There are women who don’t have a negative experience with it, but because of the risk of negative health consequences, for children who cannot legally consent, CDF believes that this practice should end. The lack of benefits to the girl and the overwhelming amount of possible and common negative effects on her health, psychological and physical, make this a dangerous practice. At 18, after she has gone through her schooling and not become pregnant and dropped out and as a grown adult, she can decide for herself if she would like to go through with a procedure of that magnitude.

 I myself am a lowly intern still frozen in awe from being dropped into a well-established, internationally recognized leader in children's rights in Tanzania and even neighbouring countries, and I'm trying my best to help them in any way I can and to get over my star struck-edness.  As a political scientist interested in a certain kind of social justice, these people are my celebrities.  My official job title is "Resource Mobilization and Monitoring and Evaluation Officer" and I've been given some very interesting tasks so far which I cannot divulge.  My co-workers are amazing and work so hard sometimes they don't even have lunch and often stay until 7 or so at night.  Tell me again what other people's celebrities do? (other than Angelina Jolie, she is the obvious exception).  I wanted to tell everyone about this because if you have the opportunity, these exchanges (especially with thorough and thoughtful organizations like VIDEA) are important cross-cultural experiences that make you learn just as much about yourself and your culture as you do about someone else's. I also wanted to tell everyone that if you ever want to do something, to push yourself to do something different to enrich your human experience and relate-ability to others, to echo the awesome Shia LaBeouf, “JUST DO IT!”

See Shia’s full motivational video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao0
See Children’s Dignity Forum website here: www.cdftz.org
See VIDEA’s full website here: www.videa.ca

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Constant state of Confusion

Being a newcomer to a city and country and continent that you've never been to before is obviously going to be a bit jarring as you try to awkwardly fit into a space that you've had no exposure to and as my amazing organization told me it is best to just let go and get comfortable with not understanding.  This is great advice because instead of getting hung up on all the things you simply won't understand it is important to enjoy the spontaneity of it all and to be in the moment.  However, I've been here for a little under a month and as a human, I try to make sense of the world around me by seeing patterns and having a healthy curiosity about things. I've listed some curious things I've noticed that I hope to someday move into my other work in progress blog post "Things that don't, but do, make sense, some more than others." Here they are

  1. Why is there salt (or something white) all over the hard-boiled eggs being sold here?  Is it so that when you peel it there is salt on your fingers already or does it maybe have something to do with preservation?
  2. Why do children carry little brooms around with them? Do they make them? Do they use them at school? Do they buy them at school and bring them home?
  3. How to know when to say Chickamoo (something like, "I kiss your feet") as a sign of respect?
  4. What is the secret to keeping clothes so clean!? I need help on this one, desperately...
  5. What does an egg and peanut butter sandwich taste like?
  6. Why do shells on the beach have holes in them? Perfect for making jewelry!
     



    7. Why do all the closet, bathroom and bedroom doors have locks on them with their own individual sets of keys? Particularly the bathroom that can be locked from the outside....?
    8. Why don't people say goodbye here after a phone conversation?
    9. How on earth do men and women carry full 15L buckets of water on their head with no hands?
   10. Why do anti-malaria pills give me the most intense and well thought out dreams with the best story lines I've ever had?
   11.  Why do they put stickers on your bag and your computer when you go into a grocery/general store such as the Nakumatt at Mlimani City. They don't take your bag or your computer, they just put stickers on them as if to say, that you came here with them, but there are no computers or bags like mine in the store?....
   12. How come I've never heard of Stoney Tangawizi (Product of Coca-Cola) before in my life? It is so good! Tangawizi is very fun to say and means ginger in Swahili, it is a ginger ale that actually tastes like ginger!

If you have any answers to these questions feel free to teach me!  This post is a work in progress, I hope to remember more things that I'm confused about!

Things that don't, but do, make sense, some more than others....


I wanted to start a post here about things that are done differently here but also make sense, some things more than others… I’ll let you be the judge!

  •       You give the bus driver money during or after your stop, not before they’ve taken you somewhere.  We have been on a bus that broke down and giving back 400 shillings in change to dozens of people would be difficult math-work.  Of course in Canada a new bus would come and pick everyone up for free, the buses (dala dalas) here in Tanzania appear uniform yet at least semi-privately owned and I don’t think that would work.
  •      Reporters are paid for coming to your event for a story, but may never actually report it.  Not corruption or bribery, it is simply the way things work here.  Because I work in an organization that operates under a human rights based approach to advocacy, as opposed to a charity-based approach, having the media cover your story is an important resource to reach a wider audience and frustratingly, one that is so valuable, you are willing to pay for the chance for them to come.  But, try explaining that to donor organizations.  “Where did that 80,000 shillings go?” “We had to pay the journalists for coming to check out our story” “But… It was never aired?”….. ayyeeeee…..
  •       You negotiate the price of a taxi/bajaj (three-wheeler motorbike with a resemblance of a gold cart) before you get in.  I’ve been in taxis in Vancouver where there have been new drivers that don’t know the city well.  One time we went around in circles and we ended up paying way over what we wanted to because he had lead us in the wrong direction, and we didn’t know the city that well, but we recognized the same buildings had gone by.  (I choose to believe he was a new driver and not intentionally driving us around in circles ripping us off...)
  •      Conferences put on by my organization that children/adults/other organizations attend for awareness raising and skill building are paid a generous amount for transportation costs.  This is to ensure their attendance because why else would they miss school, pay for transport or volunteer to drive kids away from school for it?  It makes sense, but is also very hard to explain to donors.
  •      In Tanzania, a lot of food is eaten with your hands. So it makes sense to leaving your pinky finger nail long to use when eating or for getting stuff out of your teeth after. At restaurants, before you eat they bring around a water jug and bucket and soap for you to wash your hands before you eat. They also return after your meal to repeat it!
  •      Women pat their own heads all the time.  This is to itch their heads, without loosening their braids or messing up their incredibly straight and perfectly combed hair.
  •      At first, I didn't understand why I had banana in my rice dish, and then I tried it.  It is awesome and it counteracted the spicy rice pilau.  Next on the table, egg and peanut butter sandwiches!

…These are some of the things I’ve noticed so far but this post is a work in progress very much like my knowledge about Tanzania!...



Water, Water, Nowhere

When I arrived at 2am to my home for the next six months I was simply grateful that I was not in the airport attempting paranoid sleep sloughed over six chairs with tired fingers on my bags, again, after days of airport hopping.  The next day, after much needed sleep, myself and 5 other interns with our local support worker hit the ground running when we went to, probably, the busiest market in Dar es Salaam, Kariakoo.  After such a busy week and a day full of utter jet lag and confusion, I was excited to be at my new home but became concerned when we returned to no power.  I imagined, maybe, that there was a power outage, or that I needed to pay for my electricity, somehow, somewhere.  The next day power returned, no harm done for us, and I was slightly relieved there was no bill to pay already and forgot about it.  During the next couple days, water services were intermittent and I became aware that my routine of charging my phone, computer, and showering with water and power on demand needed changing.  My roommate and I filled up buckets of water and now charge whenever possible now acutely aware of our privilege that we took for granted so easily in Canada like having water come out of the tap when you turn one of the knobs.  This was the way things were and after the first week there were no real problems for us with this system and we chalked it up to part of the cultural adaptation necessary when experiencing a cross cultural exchange.
            Things started to get real after water was shut off for 1 whole day, then 2, then 3…. But then, on the National Holiday October 14th, water came on! Oh what a glorious day… but that only turned into a couple of hours. But, it was enough to have a nice shower, do laundry and fill up our lackluster bucket collection.  We started to hear and read about the critical levels of water in the river, which run the hydroelectricity plants, which explains the water and power issues.
            In Canada, most of us are privileged with our water, but this year was different, for British Columbia at least, because we also had critically low water levels.  Now, the rainy season has luckily come back, but maybe it has taken a little more of the topsoil to the gutters and back to the ocean than usual, and who knows what the years to come will bring.  BC also uses hydroelectricity and I wonder if the problem here in Tanzania will mirror what might happen in BC in years to come.  I’ve gone from severe drought in BC to severe drought in Tanzania and it makes me think about water a lot. 
            I won’t lie, I’m not always very conscientious with my water and I’ve been known to take a long shower once in a while. But water is like that old saying, and more recently the Joni Mitchell song, “you don’t know what you got till it’s gone” and I am realizing how much I love it. 
            I also love politics, which is why I’m going to put some of that in here too!  The now previous Harper Government completely gutted the Fisheries Act, which now allows mining companies to dump toxic waste into freshwater bodies, even if they have fish in them.  Did you get that? The Fisheries Act no longer protects fish! Read this, from my hero,

Originally intended only to apply to lakes that were already dead, “Schedule 2” reclassified healthy lakes as a “tailings impoundment areas” and no longer protected them under the Fisheries Act. Already Sandy Pond in Newfoundland has been destroyed under this loophole and Environment Canada has released the names of 29 natural water bodies that mining companies have applied to use as toxic waste dumps. [emphasis added]

(Council of Canadians, Blue Betrayal (2015), pg. 5)


As the rainy season returns to my lovely province of BC, while where I am I’m not sure when it will be better I just want people to think about what water means to them.  An election is coming up in Tanzania, and one has just passed in Canada.  Many people believe that the most important civic duty is to vote.  Don’t get me wrong, as a political scientist that supports participatory democracy I support voting but what I want to say is that real participatory democracy doesn’t happen on a single day every 4-5 years, it happens everyday.  Make your love for water heard and be advocates to restore the Fisheries Act, the Navigable Waters Act, and the Environmental Assessment Act to safeguard our freshwater bodies in case droughts and severe weather patterns change in the coming years which I think I’ve heard something about somewhere….

Sunday, October 18, 2015

The Meaning of "Mazuka": Tanzanian Slang Taught to Me

Mazuka, as I've tried to look it up, is not on the internet anywhere where I can find it.  I learned it on the very first day of my International Youth Internship Program funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development and the Get Youth Working Program.  VIDEA (Victoria International Development Education Association) gained funding from the internship program and partnered with an organization in Tanzania, Africa called the Children's Dignity Forum and off I went!  Mazuka, as I've had it described to me, is Tanzanian slang for "awesome", "100%", where you feel like you are on a high, where you feel good and you're happy for deserving it.  Mazuka is all of these things and responding to people by using it always makes them laugh because I don't think they were expecting me to say it.  I will forever be indebted to the very cool guy at the phone store the first day who told it to me, giving me an insider tip on how to appear more knowledgeable and cooler than I am!