October 12- 25

Good day all,

The past two weeks has gone by quite fast and I feel like I am on a bit of a routine now which at times I like and at other times not so much.  Early last week I got sick again.  I was quite annoyed because I usually do not get sick and I had just gotten over malaria.  My first thought was that I contracted malaria again.  However, I didn’t have a fever so I figured that was a good sign.  All my symptoms seemed to point to seasonal allergies so I made my way to town in search of some Clariton from one of the countless “ma and pa’s” pharmacies.  I found some Clariton but it was surprisingly expensive and each pill was sold separately. The package also said Clariton but it didn’t look remotely close to the Clariton packaging sold in Canada.  I thought this was very sketchy and had my doubts that it would work.  Well, to my surprise the pills actually worked and after just two days I was back to normal.

This past Friday was the first time I went to help cultivate the new land in the last couple of weeks.  I hadn’t been to the new land because I was not feeling great; however, a lot of work had been done since my last time there.  Another large portion of land had been tilled, the nursery of spinach and cabbage we planted when I first arrived had been transplanted to a large plot of tilled land; as well more corn, ground nuts (they kind of like peanuts), and cereal grains had been planted.  The banana, papaya, and mangos trees are also nearly ready to be harvested.  I was very surprised to see how much greener the new land had become.  The mild rainy season has begun but in all honesty it really hasn’t rained that much so I was surprised to see how much effect the infrequent rains have had on the land.

Over the past two weeks I feel that I have been on the computer a lot more than normal.  I think this is because I have been busy writing reply emails to the Friends of FONELISCO mailing list pertaining to a rent crisis email I sent out a while back.  Basically, FONELISCO is a couple months late in paying rent and I am trying to ask for urgently needed funds but also describing what we are doing to change the current financial situation at FONELSICO.

As far as nutrition related initiatives are concerned this has been a productive couple of weeks.  I have been busy gearing up for all the interviews and implementation of changes to the children’s diet that will be taking place in the following two weeks.  At our staff meeting this week my director helped to translate all the things that I will be doing over the next couple of weeks and also explained how I want to set up some meetings with the Tanzanian staff who help cook to get their input on how I can make sustainable changes to improve the children’s diet.

Here are some  observations/ things that I have seen thus far in my Tanzanian sojourn:

-all clothes are washed by hand which isn’t much of a surprise.  The children taught me the proper procedures for hand washing because I was apparently doing it wrong

-we do not have a fridge; therefore, care is made not to waste any food.  This also ensures that the food we eat is always fresh.  Due to constant power outages I am not sure if a fridge would be possible unless it had a generator

-when a person is hospitalized it is the responsibility of friends or family to feed the patient and in most cases change their bedding

- All drinking water is boiled for half an hour and is then cooled.  Because the water is boiled on an open fire the water sometimes retains a bit of a charcoal taste (not always but sometimes)

- an iron is literally an iron at the orphange.  I noticed that the children’s school clothes were always wrinkle-free and my clothes always looked like a dog had taken a disliking to them.  The children showed me their secret.  They take coals from the open fire where they cook at and place them into the cast iron iron, where us Western folk would usually pour the water into. Ingenious!

-we are surrounded by outdoor churches at Fonelisco and most days of the week the women practice for long hours.  The kids dance to the music and even the three year olds have rhythm.  Very impressive!   It is quite fired up and I think I will attend one day although it is in Swahili and church lasts for several hours here. 

-children commonly get sick with malaria, worms, and even typhoid.  They are tough people though; one child had a laundry list of diagnoses and a few days later he was helping to till the land with the rest of us.

-after planting some cabbage and spinach at the new land I went to the river that borders the Fonelisco property to fill a pale to water the soil.  Joseph (my director) said to be careful and watch out for hippos.  He wasn’t joking.

-After years of undergrad summer trench digging experience I consider trench digging to be the manliest of man jobs.  In my trench digging experience we only had to dig 18inches deep which was the required municipal guidelines for lying gas lines for inground swimming pool heaters.  I thought we were quite hard core. The other day I witnessed a group of Tanzanian men pick away at the width of an entire two lane road.  The trench was at least six feet wide and eight feet deep.  It was being built to accommodate a massive drainage pipe.  I was shocked!!!   I should have taken a picture.  I didn’t take a picture because I witnessed this insane spectacle in the morning and was certain that I could just take one on my way home at night.  Not possible.  The lads had just finished the job when I passed by at night.  The pipe had been laid and they were just finishing off filling in the excess dirt.  All I could do was give em’ a Cherry thumbs up and a nod of ‘fellow trench digga’ approval. 

-to get to the new land we take a dala dala (this is basically an 11 seat mini van which usually carries a minimum of 25 people).  After the dala dala we take a bicycle taxi, which as the name implies, is a guy riding a bike with a makeshift seat on the back with pegs for your feet and hands.  I always wear shoes. I am for good reason a little paranoid about fast moving spokes!!! 

- One day on my way back from the new land during my first weeks I was admiring the sunset on the back of my bicycle taxi when I saw a fat duck out of the corner of my eye.  It was waddling along and then it started to pathetically flap its wings.  I thought to myself that this poor duck should just focus its energy on walking to wherever it has to go because it is not getting off the ground.  Meanwhile my driver, who was no more than a buck-forty soaking wet, was starting to breath heavy as he concentrated on taking us over a slight hill.  It then became apparent to me that we were on a collision course with Mr. Duck.  Neither the duck nor my bicycle taxi driver seemed willing to give up any ground so I held on to the hand pegs which protruded out from my driver’s seat.  Truth be told I was pretty much holding on to his behind.  Right before the inevitable collision Mr. Duck became airborne and hit me around waist level.  As the collision was taking place a truck came over the top of the hill.  I was freaking out but the bicycle taxi driver seemed not to care.  At the last second he pulled a hard left to avoid the truck, whereas, my trans Canada instincts caused me to lean a hard right (traffic is on the opposite side here).  This resulted in a very close call for all parties involved.  Fortunately no person or duck was harmed.  I told Joseph that I do not want to ever take another bicycle taxi if it is starting to get dark.

That is all for now.  Cheers,

Scott

www.fonelisco.com

Category: On location, Tanzania // 1 Comment »