ALISON HEADS EAST: Week 5

Week 5

Monday, September 3rd, 2007
Meaghan and I began the morning with a very intensive meeting in Mabutini with the Yogurt Mamas. We brought with us our dear friend Beatrice to help translate the meeting. We spoke mainly about the Mamas views of the Minister’s visit and preparations for more promotional events to bring acknowledgement to the project. The Mamas are going to be participating in a trade fair to promote the Fiti Yogurt along with the brochures (that we put together) to explain the benefits of probiotic yogurt. After the meeting, we went with some of the Mamas to the bank to take out funds to pay for their bills, including gas, electricity, milk, transportation, and coal. After the bank Meg and I went home to type up the minutes for the meeting and finish up project work. We also made a very nice zucchini stir fry and we are very proud of our creative/experimental cooking. Later that evening we headed over to Tunza for traditional South African beer bread and hot pot all made at the beach with a coal stove. The Masai were practicing shooting their bow and arrows and allowed me to try once, which landed just at the base of the target!

Beautiful sunset in Kijereshi

Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
Meg and I didn’t get much sleep last night because of the very loud rainstorm and random noises coming from our neighborhood. Many of the local residents have told us that the rainy season starts in November so I am hoping that all the rain we’ve been having over the last few days is not indicating an early rain season. We started the day off with project work at home and then went to the internet café to send emails home. The internet was especially slow today and Meg and I barely got anything done. After our lunch of couscous and a cucumber salad, we went to our Swahili lesson near Isamilo. We had a very exhaustive class because we are just getting started with sentence structure and grammar. The Swahili language consists of six noun classes that have different prefixes for the singular and plural forms of the nouns: ki-vi, m-mi, ji-ma, m-wa, n, and u class. The noun prefixes also correspond with the adjectives that they are being described by, very tricky at first but I’m sure they will start getting easier with practice. After our lesson we came home to meet with Joseph Mlinzi (Assistant to the Mayor) about the Minister’s visit. While waiting for Mr. Mlinzi to arrive, we had a student drop by, Mercy (Melissa and Jackie had given her funds to send her to school). Mercy is 14 years old and goes to school near our home, she lives with her aunt because both her parents passed away because of AIDS. She had not eaten in three days because her aunt accused her of stealing and was punishing her. Mercy denied the accusations and was feeling very hungry so we gave her some food to eat and take home with her. It is difficult to imagine going without food and not having any money to buy any, but it is a reality for so many children here in Africa. Many are without parents, a home, or food and are reluctant to enter into the accessible shelters or get a job because begging brings in more money.

Claire, Meg and I

Wednesday, September 5th, 2007
The morning started off rainy, once again, and so Meg and I began our day with project work at home. We had protocols to retype, files to prepare for the Mamas and also their English lessons in the afternoon. There is a computer printer and photocopier conveniently located below our apartment, and we have become very friendly with them as we are regular customers. Once the rain appeared to have stopped, Meg and I set off for town to buy a thorough English-Swahili dictionary and send off some mail at the post office. We were a bit mistaken about the rain, because we ended up getting very wet by the time we had reached the post office. We then walked to Mabutini to give the Yogurt Mamas their English lesson, which took about 45 minutes to get there and was a great chance to see the Southern part of the city. After the lesson, we picked up some yogurt to give to ‘Forever Angels’ orphanage as a taste-test to see if the toddlers enjoyed it as a snack to incorporate it into their diets. Many children in Mwanza lack the proper dairy consumption, and with the added probiotics will hopefully help the children battle certain diseases that attack the body’s immune system.
Walking around all afternoon made Meg and I very tired and we decided to stay in for the evening and get an early night’s sleep.

Thursday, September 6th, 2007
Meghan and I set off to the Forever Angel’s orphanage this morning and played with the toddlers and babies till their nap time at 11am. I was able to drop off the yogurt for the kids and will hear back shortly to see if they liked it. All the children are amazing and have a great appetite, so I have high hopes that they will like the yogurt as well. The orphanage has a wonderful collection of clothes and costumes and today many of the children had fancy dresses on (even the boys). After the kids were put to bed, Meg and I set of back home by walking 30 minutes to the main street to catch the daladala.

Mwita dressed up as Snow White at the Forever Angel's orphanage

At home, Meg and I made great sandwiches with salami, avocado, sun dried tomatoes, mayonnaise and a garlic chutney sauce. After lunch we went to drop off beakers at NIMR and then to our Swahili class for more grammar lessons. There are usually 4 students in our class; Claire (England), Christian (Germany) and Meg and myself. We have become very good friends, especially with Claire because she is the same age as Meg and myself. We, along with Claire, have made a habit of going to yoga at Tunza after our Swahili lessons on Thursday and it is a great way to meditate after a long day of work.
Today is also Meaghan and my one month anniversary from the day we left Canada to come here to Mwanza!

Friday, September 7th, 2007
Meg and I were abruptly awaken this morning to Mama Joyce banging on our window and yelling ‘Maggie’ (Meaghan). We got up and let her in and all she wanted was our phone numbers, which we gave to her several times before. We got ready for the day and prepared some notes for our meetings at the City Council this morning. Mr. Mlinzi had set up several meetings with representatives for TASAF and SACCOs today to get a bit of information about the programs and to see if the Tukwamuane women could be possible candidates. We also met with Mama Joyce again to give her the admission fee for her to take part in a SIDO training session about proper preservation for yogurt. It is a 3 day course and she will come back and teach the other Mamas about preservation. For lunch, Meg and I treated ourselves to lunch at the Pizzeria and then went home to get our things together for a nice swim at the international pool with our friend Claire and made a very good pasta dish and garlic bread at her place for dinner.

Saturday, September 8th, 2007
The weekend started with our 3rd attempt at making chipati. The first time we used maize flour, which is really to make ugali. The second time we used wheat flour and it made a very nice crepe but no chipati. Then, the other day we were shopping in Lavena and found Chipati flour (what a concept). And it was a success. I got a recipe from a chef at Tunza and it worked out great. Meaghan, Claire and I spent all day making chipatis to share with our friends at Tunza, along with a guacamole dip. In the afternoon we finished cooking and headed to Tunza for a nice boat ride out to the Tilapia Hotel. We all wanted to try wake boarding in the waters and I had never done it before. In the bay, however there have been several sightings of crocodiles that have eaten humans, so I was not eager to learn in that part of the water, maybe another place and time. That night we watched ‘the Phantom of the Opera’ and I was singing all the songs all night long.

Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Today we made a trip out to Kijereshi again (near the Serengeti). We made a few stops along the way at Speke’s Hotel, the Stop-Over, and at a small community outside of Kijereshi that Meaghan and I named ‘Mishkaki corner’ (Mishkaki is a meat skewer that is grilled and tastes amazing). Along the way we got a flat tire and this was my first time changing a flat. We took another game drive later in the day and because of all the rain earlier in the week, the land looked very different and greener than the first time we went. Unfortunately we did not see many large animals, but the scenery was still very nice.