We got up early to have breakfast and finish packing to go back to Mwanza. While we were paying our bill we realized that they had forgotten to charge us for an entire day’s meal including both lunch and dinner for Meaghan and me. Lucky for us. The trip felt longer than it was and I was happy to come back and see the Mamas. The flights were pleasant, especially because I fell asleep on both of them. We had an unexpected 1.5 hour delay in Dar es Salaam but were given lunch vouchers for an Indian buffet. The food was amazing and we were hungry so the delay actually worked out to our benefit. We got into Mwanza around 6pm and just unpacked our things and relaxed for the rest of the night
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
I was feeling quite tired this morning but I got myself up to start writing up my blog. Meg and I worked till noon then set out to the internet café to post and check emails. We ended up at a new café and it worked very well for me, but Meaghan was having a lot of difficulties with her computers. We had a quick lunch and walked to U-turn to pick up some groceries for dinner. We had our Swahili class from 3pm to 5pm and then went to the International School for a swim in their pool. We then went to Claire’s place and made a simple pasta with vegetables and tomato sauce.
Swahili lessons with Mr. Gaudence.
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
Meaghan and I started our morning with WHE project work. She put together the brochure about the benefits of yogurt, specifically probiotic yogurt, and information about the Tukwamuane group with all the changes suggested by the WHE faculty. I prepared the English lesson for the Mamas today and made appointments for this week. We went back to the internet café to finish up some emails and to upload pictures onto our blogs. We had a nice lunch at the Pizzeria and then went to the supermarket to pick up groceries for the apartment. When we got home we did not have much time before going to Mabatini, but we were able to have a much needed short rest. I had been feeling really tired and the hot weather did not seem to help.
Meaghan and I had our arms full walking to the Yogurt Kitchen; 3 containers, 10 English lessons, a clock (to replace the one that broke), and 10 spice boats from Zanzibar. Before leaving for Zanzibar the Mamas requested gifts for us to bring them and I find it interesting how many local individuals think that Meg and I are here in Mwanza to bring money and gifts. The Mamas gave us a very warm welcome back and were extremely happy with their gifts from Zanzibar. We taught them the English lesson and stayed for some rice and beans before going home with 9L of yogurt between Meaghan and I (6L on my head). We got home feeling very exhausted and had a very quiet night in.
Thursday, November 8th, 2007
Meaghan and I woke up early this morning to meet with Dr. Changalucha about the delivery process of the milk and probiotics. Meg and I have been trying to schedule the 3 parties (delivery, culturing, pick-up) to complete their tasks on time so that it does not interfere with the next step. All of the individuals seem to understand yet it does not get done on a regular basis and so Meg and I set up this meeting with Changalucha to see if he could enforce our recommendations. We will get back with him after he has had a few meetings with the parties involved.
After going to NIMR we had planned to meet with Joseph Mlinzi from City Council, but he was not getting back to us. I had been feeling extremely tired and dizzy all morning and so I decided to drop by Nyakahoja clinic to get checked up just in case. I was diagnosed with Malaria again and so I was glad to have found out sooner than later. I purchased my medication and then we headed off to City Council to see if we could meet up with Mlinzi. We met up with him briefly because he had to rush off to another meeting, but we were able to get some information about registering as a business and getting help with our TASAF application which we will have to follow up with next week.
We went back to the internet café to try and print off the application forms to register the Tukwamuane women as a business but there were so many various applications depending on the level you are applying for that we weren’t sure which one our group belonged to. So we will go to the Regional Commissioner’s Office next week to speak with a knowledgeable party about this issue.
We went home for lunch and got our things together for the afternoon. We had to pay for our new set of Swahili lessons, bring our Swahili notebooks, the yogurt to distribute to the yoga crowd, and bring the gifts that Jackie and Missy sent for friends. Our Swahili lesson went well but I was still feeling very tired and was not feeling all there. The yoga lesson was the same, I did the movements but not full out. Jenny (the yoga instructor and Missionary) brought her girls soccer team (>10 girls) to yoga and so every mat was turned sideways and had 2 people using it. It was a nice change and quite a site.
We spent the evening at Claire’s place playing board games with Janine, Henk, Jenny, Meg, Claire and I and ate pizza.
Another amazing sunset at Tunza.
Friday, November 9th, 2007
I was not feeling well this morning and so I slept in a bit. Meg made the English test for today and I started writing up some growth statistics for the children at the Forever Angels orphanage. Afterwards, Meg and I headed off to Mabatini to pick up the 6L of yogurt to bring to the orphanage. We spent a few hours with the children at Forever Angels and were finally able to see them eating yogurt and they were so cute. They really did enjoy it so much and had it with small pieces of fruit.
We left the orphanage to meet up with Mama Paskwalina and Father Nicholas to go to Mahina and meet with a group of PLWA (people living with AIDS). Nicholas was acting as a translator for us and he was a great help. We asked the group if we would be able to obtain some health statistics about their CD4 levels in order to send the anonymous information to Canada. We listened to some concerns that the group had and if there were any difficulties in obtaining the yogurt that they receive daily free-of-charge. Despite the donation of yogurt, the group was paying a small amount to make up for the transportation fee (dala-dala) and the time that the individual is away from their job. Some of the individuals did not receive yogurt daily because they could not afford the small cost.
We came home after a long day and made a simple dinner. A few friends were planning on going out for the night but I was not feeling up to it and so stayed home and went to bed very early.
Joseph enjoying a good cup of yogurt.
Mmm Mmm Good (Charlie)
Got 'Maziwa' Michael?
Charlie, Gracie and Michael.
Saturday, November 10th, 2007
I was able to sleep in a little and was feeling much better. I was glad to have stayed in the night before. I had a relaxing morning and took a walk through Mlango Mmoja to see if there was anything interesting there. I found 2 skirts that I wanted to use the fabric of and have tailored into a shirt and a dress. Meaghan and I got ready to head into town to look for material to make some clothing and went with Claire and Lauren. We had a good time in the market and got home in time for a quick lunch then to head over to Tunza for a relaxing evening and a South African dinner (Pojkie).
The 'Tunza Special'.
Sunday, November 11th, 2007 (Remembrance Day)
Again, I was able to sleep in today and spend some time writing in my journal and reading my book. Meaghan, Claire and I headed to Tunza for the day and stopped by Saba Saba on the way. The weather was grey and was about to storm at any second. We read our books and played scrabble for a bit then headed over to Major’s house to watch a movie while the weather got worse and worse. After the movie we went out to dinner at an Indian/Chinese restaurant called, ‘The Diner’ and the food was very good, but took a very long time to come. We were all very tired after our meal and went home to have an early night.
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