Meaghan and I spent the morning writing our blogs, putting together pictures to post and making the English Lesson for the mamas. We then headed into town to the internet café and we were able to accomplish all our tasks in 1 hr. We then had a quick lunch before going to City Council for our meeting with Mr. Tukay, the City planner, for 2pm. We waited until 3pm before he showed up and then he took us to see the Director to explain our project. Mr. Tukay had some meetings to attend before going with us to Mabatini to look at the Kitchen, so Meg and I waited patiently. Little did we know he would make us wait until 5pm just sitting on couches not knowing when he would show up. So, we finally went to Mabatini and then to an area called Nyamongoro with Mama Paskwalina where there is potential land that the project could purchase to expand the project. The area is about 7 km from Mabatini, but is along the main road that the dala-dala travels. We headed back to Mabatini and spoke with the Mamas about their thoughts of the location and they agreed that it would not be too far to travel, about 500 Tsh (<$0.50) each way. This to me seems like a lot to spend on transportation when they only make $1 per day from the project. Meg and I left the Kitchen and went home to get ready to go to Jenny’s place for dinner. We had missed Yoga but were able to join the group for a really amazing dinner with fried rice, shrimp, egg drop soup, pineapple, salsa and chips, vegetable stir fry, cassava chips, guacamole, and the best part was chocolate cake with cookies and cream ice cream. We had a lovely evening and watched ‘A Beautiful Life’ on a projector.
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Meg and I spent the morning arranging meetings with Kivulini about EDFO, Moishi, CV letters, the Mama’s constitution, and contractors in Nyamongoro. We were able to get a CV template and a name of a woman who does architectural designs. We then headed into town to get some groceries for the house. We dropped off our groceries and then headed back into town. I had to meet a friend to book our safari trip together in December. We then had to go to our Swahili lessons for 3pm. We went swimming after class and then to Claire’s place for dinner. We made a very interesting meal of a sweet potato stew. We had an early night because Meg and I were both feeling very tired all day.
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
Today was a busy but extremely successful day! We got up early this morning and made arrangements to meet with Mr. Ngowi, TASAF coordinator for 9:30am. We picked up Mama Paskwalina in Mabatini on the way to City Counsel. She finally had all the applications, street leader meeting minutes, and signatures put together to give to Mr. Ngowi. Mr. Ngowi had been waiting, as we were too, for the meeting to happen and he had been busy putting together an action plan, diagrams, and a budget for our application. We were requesting dairy cows and all the equipment and tools to run a cow shed. Mr. Ngowi had broken down all the expenses from spades to training and cows to labor costs. It was extremely well organized and we were to receive 4 dairy cows and 1 bull if the application was accepted. Mr. Ngowi was extremely supportive and positive that the grant would go through. We left his office with his assistant and driver to pick up Mr. Moishi, an agricultural surveyor, to see if there was an appropriate place to have the cow Banda. Unfortunately the abandoned cow shed on Mama Paskwalina’s land was too small for what the project was proposing and we would have to find another place to build upon.
Mama Paskwalina (the chairperson)
The abandoned cow shed.
The day was not over yet for Meg and I because we had a meeting planned to meet with representatives from the German Embassy about another possible grant that would go towards building our new Kitchen. A friend, Tini, who has build a preschool and will be the principle of the school has been supported by the German Embassy and was asked to show them several other ‘grass root’ level organizations who could benefit from their support and she thought of us. We gave the two gentlemen a tour of our kitchen and gave them some background information of the Tukwamuane Women and what the grant would be used for. The meeting went well and we will now spend the next month filling out the application and finding a suitable piece of land to build on.
Our evening was spent at the Kivulini Kitchen celebrating a friend who had finished his contract in Mwanza and it was also his birthday.
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
We had another busy day today and went to Mabatini first thing to pick-up Mama Paskwalina to take a dala-dala into Nyakato to meet with Father Nico. We then went all together to Mahina to get the CD4 data from the HIV+ population. As we expected, only 3 individuals of the entire group had come with their information. So, we would have to reschedule to get all the stats of the participants. We got dropped off in Nyakato to meet with Dr. Sokombi at Heifer International. He gave us some useful information to send to Mr. Ivan from Danone. We stayed for an hour or so and then went back to Mabatini on a dala-dala to pick-up yogurt from the Kitchen and to help them with their English lessons from the previous day.
We came home to gather some things for the rest of the afternoon and then headed into town to use the internet and for our meeting with Dr. Temu, Director of the Microbiology lab, at NIMR. NIMR takes approximately 30 minutes to walk to from our apartment, so it was very disappointing and frustrating to hear that Dr. Temu had not arranged a meeting with the appropriate parties and would reschedule for next week. We had our Swahili lessons later on and then went to Tunza for yoga. Meaghan and I came home right after and had a very nice and relaxing night in and watched a movie.
Friday, November 23rd, 2007
We had a meeting with Maimuna, the director of Kivulini, this morning and informed her of our progress for the week and had some questions answer. We made the English test for the day and headed to Mabatini to distribute them and also pick-up yogurt for the Forever Angels Orphanage. The children at the orphanage were so cute and were singing ‘Happy Birthday’ for one of the volunteers there. They had cake and played with balloons. We had to come home a bit earlier than normal because I had a meeting with Mama Sofia at 4pm. I called up Mama Elizabeth and Paskwalina and went with Omar to help translate the meeting. Her office is just behind our apartment and so it is very convenient for me to go and visit her when need be. We explained what we wanted the Kitchen to consist of and drew a very rough draft of an example of what the Kitchen could look like. Mama Sofia would put together 3-4 drafts for the Mamas and WHE staff to look at and give feedback about them for Thursday. In the evening Meg and I went to Jenny’s place again for dinner and a movie. We had pasta and banana splits and watched ‘Catch and Release’.
Yunice in her kitenge.
Playing with the balloons.
Michael with his balloon.
Saturday, November 24th, 2007
I was not feeling very well this morning when I woke up and decided not to join Meaghan for camping at Kijereshi. I stayed home and had a very restful morning. I managed to get myself out to walk to the market and pick-up some groceries for dinner tonight. I came home pretty tired and watched a movie. I went back out later on and met up with Ruben at NIMR. He gave me a ride home on the back of his bicycle and it was quite fun. We relaxed for a while then started making dinner. I had bought a fresh Tilapia for dinner and filleted it to be pan fried. We had it with a tomato sauce, rice and a cucumber salad. After dinner we watched ‘Ocean’s 13’ and had an early night.
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
I went with Ruben, on his bike again, to the New Mwanza Hotel for the church service that he usually goes to. The service was very passionate and full of energy. I was not used to that kind of service but was a pleasant change. It was not in a church at all, but rather in a room next to the restaurant and only had about 25 people present.
I had a tea at the Pizzeria before heading home. I spent a little time on the internet then got some things together to go to Tunza. I walked out to Airport Road and then took a dala-dala to the Tunza entrance then walked another 20 minutes to the lodge. A trip by taxi costs at least 7,000 Tsh (~$7) and I did it for 250 Tsh (~$0.25), but it took about an hour to get there. When I got there I relaxed for half an hour before getting to work and repainting some of the Tunza entrance wall. I still have a project to paint the other wall and the reception area, but that will be for another weekend.
I came home after having dinner at Tunza, just after Meg got home from her camping trip. She said it had been raining a lot but had a great time. I went to bed early again and hope that I will be feeling better soon.
Painting the Tunza wall.
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