One of the activities we chose to do I learned about in the CIL training before coming here. I made puzzle pieces and the staff were in two teams and they had to put the pieces together into equal sized squares without talking. It was a lot more fun to watch then it was to do! I may have made the puzzles too hard though, because it took quite a while!

We also made up a questionnaire for the staff to fill out and submit ahead of time. I drafted most of the questionnaire, but asked my fellow interns to add questions and to make sure my questions were culturally relevant before we submitted it. We were a bit worried the staff wouldn’t have time to fill it out, but we got a pretty good turnout. Only one staff refused to fill out the questionnaire because she felt it was asking about her secrets and personal life. We assured her no one had to answer any questions they did not want to answer, so she was free to ignore the questionnaire. She ended up being in the field for the event anyway. Once we had the questionnaires back we picked one unique answer per person and wrote them on chart paper. They were each given a scrap paper and asked to guess who said what answer (with the list of choices of who completed the questionnaire – I was disappointed that one of our own interns didn’t complete it). They didn’t get very many right, but they seemed to have fun doing it. Many people said it was a good activity afterwards.

We had tea and mahamri with them after the activities. Our intern coordinator said it was a very good event, because most of them haven’t done team building exercises like that before, and “getting to know you” exercises don’t happen at the office (which explains why they didn’t get many answers right). Overall it was a fun hour event and I was very pleased with how it went. They asked us to lead another team building exercise on Monday, so I have come up with a few more. My work history of being a camp counselor is coming in useful! I think I will draft up a document of various teambuilding activities that they can use as a reference in the future.

I arrived in Nairobi around 11 because my flight was delayed leaving Mombasa. My friend was there to pick me up with a friend that she hadn’t seen yet so he came along for the ride. We went to visit her brother’s office first because it is near the airport and she had never been there before. He is a manager or director or something of Seeds Co. They produce the seeds for Maize I think. I’m not quite sure. He gave me a calendar. He also offered us soda and we sat and chatted for a while. Then we went on our way, and he was leaving work too.

On our way into town there was lots of traffic and a police officer (police officers manage the traffic here. In Nairobi there are traffic lights, but in Mombasa the only traffic lights don’t work so the police officers do everything) was telling us to stop. My friend stopped but the matatu behind us didn’t stop in time and he rear-ended us. The police officer waved us both over (luckily he saw it) to the side and we pulled over. The matatu did initially but then a few minutes later it just took off. We wrote down the license number while the police officer started chasing after him. We waited there for a few minutes, and then started to follow thinking that we would see it pulled over on the side of the road further up. But we didn’t, so we pulled over when we saw another police officer and we reported the crime. My friend called her brother to come look at it and make arrangements to follow up on Monday (it is his car that she was borrowing). Luckily there wasn’t too much damage, and my friend was very confident that the driver would be found and arrested since they were circulating the license plate number. I was not so sure though.

When we finally got into town her friend left and we went to a shopping mall to find another one of her friends. She spent the day with us shopping. First we met her at a dressmakers shop and arranged for a shirt to be made for my friend’s husband, then we stopped and got some teas and stuff to for my friend to take back to Canada. After that we went to a “bad” part of town to buy cheap earrings. The place isn’t actually that bad anymore, but they said it used to be dangerous and they wouldn’t go alone. If you had to go to that area you would never driver your car there and you would not carry your purse or wear any jewelry! Apparently in recent years Nairobi has improved a lot. We passed the area where buses that go up country pick up passengers and one conductor asked me where I was going and I said nowhere. Then he put his hands on my back trying to lead me to the matatu but I just kept walking and my friend yelled at him and said “you can’t just put your hands on someone like that!” We went to these narrow hallways where there were tons of stalls selling jewelry. I got tons of pairs of earrings (60-80 shillings each – i.e. less than $1) and 2 necklaces and a bracelet.

We went for lunch, but we didn’t like the choices at the restaurant so we decided we would just have water and then go get a snack somewhere else. After that we walked to the Masai Market, where there are tons of handcrafted souvenirs. I got quite a lot of souvenirs for good prices, since I was with local people. After that we just walked back to the car and got a snack on the way, since it was already 5:30.

We dropped her friend off on the way and then went to visit my friend’s brother’s house. His wife made us dinner, and their two sons played cards with me. The 12 year old boy was shy and barely said anything to me, but the 8 year old talked a LOT. He taught me a game called AK47 (you start with 4 cards and take turns picking up cards until you get A K 4 and 7. Maybe not the best kid’s game?). I showed him a magic trick too.

After dinner we stopped in to visit with her sister before going to the airport. I had tea while I was there (it is rude not to have something at someone’s house). Her sister’s daughter had a little boy, less than 1 year old, who had never seen a white person before. He looked at me with the hugest eyes and kept looking back and forth from me to someone familiar trying to figure out what to make of me. We got a picture with him and his mom next to me, and he is pulling away from me back towards his mom. So funny! My friend and her sister drove me to the airport and I headed back to Mombasa. It was a really wonderful day. I think it was the best day I’ve had here so far

I actually really liked Nairobi. It is a big city, but it wasn’t as crazy busy as I was told it would be (but I went on a Saturday) and it was a lot safer than I was told. It is also very clean and modern. You could put it anywhere in the world and it would fit in (well the downtown part would anyway).

Then we went and got a tour of Fort Jesus, which is a really old fort/ruins. It changed hands quite a few times throughout its history. There was also a dungeon where they kept slaves, and then later prisoners. It was a pretty neat tour. We had a nice guide. He said the Fort was made in the shape of a person, with two arms, two legs and a head. I understood the arms and the head, but I couldn’t really tell where the legs were until I saw an aerial view on a map. Then we walked through Old Town a little bit. It wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be. It just had narrow streets. And the buildings looked old, but better preserved than most buildings in the city.

After that we went to a restaurant by the beach for lunch and ice cream. I got to have a thin crust pizza! I had missed pizza! After that we went to a town called Mwembe, which is just outside Mombasa. You have to cross another bridge to get to it, and down a little creek from the bridge is a floating restaurant called “The Moorings”. The driver at CHD had told me about it the day before when I was out in the field with him, so it was kind of funny that I ended up going there the next day. The restaurant is like a covered raft, and there is also a boat attached to it where you can sit as well. We sat in the boat and just had juice/soda for a bit. We went back to Mombasa and went for a walk on the beach, and then I went home. It was a great day because I got to check several things off my “To See/Do” list. If I had to do that all using matatus it would’ve taken me like 3 days! haha.

We had to be at work by 6:45 in the morning, of course in true African style we didn’t actually leave the office until after 7:30. We then had to drive to Mariakani District Hospital in Kaloleni (a district in Coast Province), stopping for some people to get snacks on the way. We had most of the drugs already donated from Tsavo power company but we picked up the health staff and more supplies at the hospital. We were in 3 different vehicles and went to three different villages. Mariakani District Hospital is about 45 minutes away from Mombasa, and the village I went to was probably about 30-45 minutes away from there (some highway and some very rough dirt roads). We also stopped at the dispensary nearest the village to pick up two more staff and more supplies. In total my group had 2 CHD staff, another volunteer, myself, 4 hospital staff and 2 dispensary staff.

Once we got to the village we set up a day clinic. We had one room for children under the age of 5 and another room for everyone above the age of 5. We also had a room for immunizations, another one for HIV counselling/testing (apparently a lot of people were counselled but most of them opted not to get tested), another room for growth monitoring, and a pharmacy. Before we started seeing patients we gathered the community together for greetings/introductions and a health talk. The health talk was on exclusive breastfeeding but the group was very interested in other health issues. They asked why some children still get sick after being immunized, and they also asked what causes a stroke. We were pleased to see their interest/enthusiasm. The clients were very patient and organized and they were all registered before seeing a clinician. The day was very well documented, with general attendance done through registration, plus each clinician keeping track of the antenatal visits, the immunizations, the HIV counselling/testing, the growth monitoring and uji mix dispensing (a porridge). I was impressed. Part of our role there was to ensure that they documented everything and filled out their statistics form. This is to help build their capacity and also to improve their records. I spent my day in the pharmacy helping to count pills and hand the pharmacists what they needed when they were busy.

It was a pretty boring/lonely day actually, since the workers in the pharmacy did not speak much English. I would ask them “Should I keep counting these pills, or do we have enough?” and they would say “That’s fine”. I learned only to ask one thing at a time. Only one of the CHD staff that was there spoke a lot of English, so I talked to him quite a bit, but he was also pretty busy. On the way home he asked me why I was so quiet and if I was feeling carsick, but I said that I just don’t understand what they are talking about. After that whenever they would start laughing he would explain to me what they were talking about. It was a long day and very busy, so I only ate a banana on the way there! I got home after 8pm (luckily they dropped me off very close to home so I didn’t have to worry about public transport) and I was exhausted! It was nice to be out in the field, but it wasn’t the most fun day.

After lunch we made mahamri. We made the dough and then we rolled them out to a bunch of circles and cut them in 4, which were then deep fried. I was better at roling the mahamri, but I was burnt 3 out of 4 of the ones I cooked. My friend did most of the cooking, and she was used to it so she would do 3 or 4 at a time. She left 4 for me to do, so I also tried to do them 4 at a time. But you have to flip them over often and they cook really fast so I messed up. I should’ve just done one at a time. Oh well. I got to take some chapati, beans and mahamri (like a donut) home with me. Mmm.

I went back another day to learn how to make Pilau (a rice dish with meat, potatoes, and spices). I met her at a market and she bought all of the vegetables we needed (I bought the rice, the meat for the pilau and also the milk for the tea). I got fed up by the time we were going through the market because everywhere I went it was “mzungu buy this” “mzungu, mzungu.” When I hear it every once in awhile I don’t really care, but after awhile I get annoyed. As we were leaving someone also bumped into me trying to steal my phone, so I was annoyed. I guess I have let my guard down a bit, since I am now so used to being here. Also, my phone is falling apart so getting it stolen wouldn’t be the worst thing! T

We went to her house and had the spaghetti that I had brought for her and her family. They love my spaghetti sauce and some of them love spaghetti noodles, but a few of them don’t. Then we had to go back out in search of a butcher that was open on a Sunday. Going to the butcher reminds me why I don’t really like to buy meat here. The guy picked up the meat with his bare hands, put it on a scale without anything on it, then cut some meat off using a big machine thing, then put it on the scale again. Then he put it in a plastic bag. And it cost me about 2 dollars.

Preparing the food in the kitchen makes me slightly uncomfortable if I think about it a lot, but I try to just go with the flow. For instance after touching and cutting the meat, we washed our hands and the knife with only water before we continued cooking. We use dishes for multiple purposes, only rinsing them out in between. I peeled the potatoes without washing them, and then we soaked them in water. I also washed the carrots off in that same water (while the potatoes were in them) and we didn’t peel the carrots (which is ok, except they weren’t really washed very well). Oh well. We made pilau, salad, and a side dish of a cooked (almost a puree) of carrots, tomato, unripe mango, and hot pepper (I think jalapenos). We ate it for lunch and it was delicious! They made me eat sooo much though. We also had some watermelon. Then we had some tea and had a rest for about an hour.

After that we made mahamri. This time I did it almost all by myself. I scraped out most of the coconut while she crushed the cardamom. Then she took over and I started making the dough. I rolled out some of the dough while my friend tidied up a bit, then she took over while I cooked the mahamri. I was much better at it this time, and I did all of them myself. Only a few didn’t rise properly. BUT I did splash burning hot oil one me a few times and burnt myself fairly badly on my arm. It is on the inside of my arm, right at the elbow joint so it hurts to bend my arm. Oh well. That is part of the learning process!!

My friend is nice and always walks me to the stage to get a matatu home (and waits until the matatu leaves!). There was a matatu there when we got there so I shook her and went to get in it and a stage guy (I don’t know what to call him, but there are men that hang around the matatu stops and help them fill up the matatu and then the conductor pays them a few shillings, which – I am told – supports their local brew habit) grabbed my hand, shook it and then kissed it. The handshake/kiss, the attempt to steal my phone, and all the “mzungu” references that day annoyed me. I wanted to say “why do you think you can just kiss my hand?!” but I didn’t. Instead I just got into the matatu and left.

Sorry for the long delay in the posts.  I had trouble accessing my account for awhile.  I will catch up now.

One Sunday (way back in February!!) I met up a friend and we went to one of the public beaches (Pirates) on the North Shore and we met her sister there. There were two camels being walked around by men. Mercy and I went on one of them. . It was so cool!! You have to hold on tight when it stands up and again when it bends down for you to get off. It was nice to be so high up with the breeze from the ocean. We walked a ways down the beach and then back. We sat on the beach for awhile, and then changed to go swimming.

The water was so hot!! It wasn’t refreshing at all. Once you got out fairly deep it was slightly refreshing, but still warm. Since it is a public beach it was packed with people, and the water wasn’t all that clear. It was nice just hanging out in the water and chatting, but the “beach boys” were a bit annoying. There was one that hung around us for quite awhile. He started by asking how our camel ride was. We started heading out deeper into the water and edging away from him, and he and my friend got in a big long discussion in swahili. Then she stopped heading out deeper and he asked if he could swim with us. I looked at my friend to try and get a clue about what the discussion had been and asked if he SHOULD swim with us. It’s always awkward because you don’t want to be rude, but sometimes you need to be to get them to leave you alone. She said yes it was fine. He told us about how he works down the beach and has a boat and takes people out snorkeling and he has all the equipment. He said he’d give me a good price. I said maybe another day we’d go. He also said they had sailboats and he could take me sailing, he could even teach me how to sail. I was getting annoyed by this point, and so I just plainly said “I already know how to sail”. He told me twice that he was a “star” at different things, I can’t remember what though. I think one was barbecuing. The other was either sailing or swimming. He also asked me if I could swim, and when I said that I used to be a lifeguard he said that he was part of the lifeguard crew at the beach. Later my friend told me that he is what they call a “beach boy”, a guy that pretends to work at the beach to take advantage of tourists. Not surprising. Apparently, during their discussion he was getting mad at her for trying to take me away from him and he said he could win me over with his words. He asked if she was keeping me for her brother, which I guess she said Yes to try to get him to leave us along. (At least hopefully she doesn’t think she’s keeping me for her brother! haha). The worst part was he said “let me use her like they use us”. Ouch. Bring on the white guilt! haha. Eventually he went away.

Another couple of guys said hi to us and then accused my friend of not letting them talk to me. She told them to talk for themselves. They asked if I wanted to swim with them, and when I said no, I think they accused my friend again and she was like “She said no, she made up her own mind”. It is tiring being one of the only wazungu (plural of mzungu – tourist/foreigner/white person).

When we went to leave, the guy that owned the beach chairs we had been sitting on asked for money. My friend had asked him when we arrived if he wanted money for sitting there and he said no. But because I was there he was trying to get more money out of us. She argued with him for a while, and finally he relented. As we were walking back to the main road to get a matatu, she said that people like that are not fair, they see your skin colour and think you have money, but you don’t. It’s not fair. I like that she seems to get it. Just because I’m here doesn’t mean that I’m rich. Although I obviously could spend a dollar and pay for the chairs we used for the day, it does all add up. At the market they charge me extra too. I have decided I’m not going to let that bother me though, as long as I’m not paying more than I would at the grocery store. So earlier this week I paid 100 ksh for a pineapple that should’ve been 70 because I knew I would’ve paid 120 or more at the grocery store.

Yesterday, we visited Ardhi University for the last time. Saying goodbyes to the students we had worked with was a bit difficult, and I found myself saddened to actually walk the laneways that final time. Fortunately, we had a short reprieve as we found a group of monkeys playing near the University café. It was great fun to watch their antics, and coax them closer with bananas so we could get some photos. The rain came then, and we walked through the drizzle to catch a daladala back to home.

The afternoon brought more surprises. I accompanied Cassandra, the other student here, to a special Scouting ceremony the Scouts had put together to thank her for her volunteer work with them. As an Eagle Scout and past scout leader, I was happy to go with her to see her honoured. To my surprise, I had been expected to attend as well – not just as an observer, but to be honoured as well. The Tanzanian Scouting District Commissioner showed up, as well as several other important leaders. Sodas and muffins lay in wait, and had refreshments together. Both Cassandra and I were asked to speak. In Tanzania, impromptu speeches are not only encouraged, they are often expected. Each of us was presented with a Tanzanian scout neckerchief and uniform badges signifying that we were now honourary Tanzanian Scouts. Cassandra was presented with a beautiful wood carving of giraffes to thank her for the work she had done with one of the local scout troops. The experience has helped decide to renew my leadership commitment with Scouts Canada once I have returned home.

Today, we managed to go out and engage in one of my favourite pastimes – geocaching! It made no sense to not find the one single geocache located in Dar es Salaam before I returned home to Canada. Find it we did, and then made a quick trip to buy some nice coffee for the family back home. When we returned to the guesthouse we are staying at, we found that lunch had been prepared for us – all our favourite Tanzanian foods! Ugali with meat and greens, chapattis and oranges for dessert. We know we have made friends here who care for us.

The rest of the day has been spent finishing the packing and getting ready to go. I will be sad to leave all of the wonderful people here, but I am ready to return home to my family, who is missing me as well. Parting can be bittersweet, but the memories which are retained remain for a lifetime. This will be the final blog post during my time here in Tanzania. Tomorrow – the plane carries me towards new horizons, new opportunities, and, in the immortal words of Winnie the Pooh – new “expotitions”.

Signing off for now:

“Good Night, and… Good Luck”

1. http://www.sfdblog.ca/ambalamoola-calling-this-is-just-a-test/
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2nd Annual Inter-School Tribal Children’s Football Tournament

The Nilgiris-Wynaad Tribal Welfare Society (NWTWS) has been committed to the health, wellbeing and welfare of this region’s Adivasi (Tribal) peoples for more than thirty years. The outpatient/inpatient hospital and dispensary they operate, and the various mobile outreach health systems projects and health awareness campaigns they regularly conduct are essential aspects of what NWTWS offers. The Society’s many Children’s Programmes constitute another essential dimension of social service provided to the Katta Nayaka, Paniya, Betta Kurumba and Mulla Kurumba families and communities. The Annual Inter-School Tribal Children’s Football Tournament – sponsored by Nilgiris Adivasi Trust – is one of these programmes.

Prior to kick off:

Mr. Ronald, NWTWS’s Project Manager says that “encouragement of Tribal children in sports at their schools is poor.” Many Adivasi schools do not have a Physical Training (PT) teacher on staff – though government funds are available to employ them – because many are unwilling or unable to live and work in or near remote communities. As a result, physical education and sporting development are all too often not part of the curriculum. He believes that “children get motivated and inspired in their schools by extra-curricular activities, not just by academics,” and that organized play and sports at school encourages regular attendance and participation. However, certain structural barriers to Adivasi student participation in physical education and sports persist; for example, permission and support from government officials for schools to develop their own programmes is necessary but at times hard to come by in a timely fashion. Regardless, as Mr. Ronald sees it, “play and sports with rules and regulations are compulsory in a child’s education, life and overall development.”

It is for this simple reason that NWTWS took the initiative and got the ball rolling last year with the Adivasi student’s football tournament, which brings public attention to Adivasi children and shows the public that “these are kids who can do well in sports.” He goes on to say that “an objective of the football tournament is recognition for the children.” To him this is an important aim because the contention is that government and private schools for non-Tribals have a tendency to overlook or to ignore Tribal students and their communities; he wonders “how they will respect Tribal children in later life if they don’t respect them now?” Another intended outcome is “increased self-esteem among the tribal children,” because even more important than gaining the respect of others is to gain self-respect. The hope in all of this is that tournament participants “can become role models in the future” for their peers.

Competition with other schools and rivalries between communities are not what’s important at the Annual Inter-School Tribal Children’s Football Tournament, instead the priorities are a healthy present and a prosperous future for Adivasi Children.

The following is a day by day synopsis of this year’s very successful and entertaining football tournament:

Mr. Chandran, NWTWS Child Care Coordinator (left) & Mr. Ronald, NWTWS Project Manager (right):

Thrsday, March 15, 2012

NWTWS’s Second Annual Inter-School Tribal (Adivasi) Children’s Football Tournament kicked off today at Vellery pitch – near Ambalamoola. Eight teams of Adivasi boys aged ten to fourteen representing local schools, most of whom without team uniforms and all of them barefoot, assembled for day one of this three day competition. First Round action saw Ambalavayal Middle School vs. Ponnani GTRS, Erumad Middle School vs. Chollady GTRS, Kappala GTRS vs. Kakkundi Middle School, and Ayyankolly GTRS vs. Pattavayal Middle School. Ambalavayal, Erumad, Kappala, and Ayyankolly advanced to the next round.

Ayyankolly GTRS vs. Pattavayal Middle School:

Mr. Chandran – NWTWS’s Child Care Coordinator organized the event, and liaised with participating school teachers and principals to get permission for students to participate. Indeed, without the vision, hard work, and persistence of Mr. Chandran this year’s tournament would not have happened. He was assisted during the final stages of planning and preparation by Dinakaran – a visiting MSW practicum student, especially in the transporting of students to and from the field of play. Mr. Balan – an NWTWS farm worker and maintenance person, along with a couple of others, helped to prepare the grounds and erect the announcer’s stage.

Teamwork:

Friday, March 16, 2012

On this hot and sunny Semi-Final Friday, it was Kappala 5 – Ambalavayal 2, and Erumad 7 – Ayyankolly 0. Again today NWTWS staff, school representatives, match referees, community members and spectators enjoyed high energy football action and were treated along with some of their favourite budding footballers to a Sambar lunch sponsored by NWTWS. The many litres of homemade lemonade to refresh, and packets of glucose powder to energize were reserved mostly for the hardworking players.

Kappala vs. Ambalavayal:

NWTWS Project Manager Mr. Ronald’s father, Mr. Goudie and uncle, Mr. Reuben – official tournament photographer, who both had travelled all the way from Chennai carrying trophies, medals and award certificates, continued their participation today officiating, coaching and encouraging. Personalized award certificates of participation individually signed by Mr. Chandran and Mr. Ronald were given to each and every member of the eight Adivasi teams that came out for day one and two of the tournament. No student went home empty handed, or with an empty stomach.

Personalized Award Certificate of Participation:

Lunchtime #1:

Lunchtime #2:

Lunchtime #3:

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Before Kappala and Erumad – each team cheered on and supported by senior members of their respective schools – met to decide the championship, NWTWS staff members and friends took the field for a friendly match, in which there were a few highlights, but many more lowlights… Mr. Jose Thomas – Farm and Field Work Programme Coordinator was unanimously selected as both Best Goalie and Man of the Match. Later, in the official awards ceremony, for his outstanding ball control and goal scoring proficiency Erumad’s Aneesh was awarded the Man of the Match trophy. The trophy for the tournament’s Best Goalie went to Shiju, who stood on his head for Kappala in the First Round and Semi-Finals. Rajesh from Kappala took home the Man of the Series trophy thanks to his brilliant all around play and sportsmanship.

Man of the Match, Aneesh:

This year’s Inter-School Tribal Children’s Football Tournament featured children and schools that represented three of the four area Tribes: Katta Nayakaas, Paniya and Mulla Kurumbas. Paniya community leader Mr. Karuppan Sir was there to see Kappala awarded the Runner’s-Up trophy and Silver Medals. Mulla Kurumba community leader Mr. Ramuwnni Sir was there to see Erumad awarded the Winner’s trophy and Gold Medals.

Mr. Ramuwnni presenting Championship Trophy to Erumad Team Captain Sajith:

Runners-Up Kappala – including Best Goalie, Shiju & Man of the Series, Rajesh – with (back row, left to right) Mr. Chandran, Mr. Goudie, Mr. Sujesh, Mr. Karuppan, Mr. Ramuwnni & Mr. Ronald:

At the awards ceremony gifts were presented with thanks from NWTWS staff to supportive school officials, indispensable community partners and amazing volunteer contributors without whom this three day event would not have been such a success. Special thanks went out to NWTWS intern and social work student volunteer from Canada, Mr. Jason, who performed several duties including those of linesman for six of the seven matches and of referee for the other. Extra-special thanks went out to referee Mr. Sujesh, who took time away from his private business to officiate both Semi-Final matches and the Final. He brought a touch of class and professionalism to the play.

Mr. Jason calling the shots:

Mr. Sujesh, all business:

The Adivasi children who participated as players and spectators, their parents, families, friends and classmates who followed and supported the action, the principals and teachers who gave permission for their students to participate, the community members and volunteers who made many contributions, the NWTWS staff members and volunteer student interns who offered a helping hand, and, of course, the organizers who made this year’s Inter-School Tribal Children’s Football Tournament happen, all deserve acknowledgement and appreciation. The hope remains that NWTWS events like this make a difference in the lives of everyone involved, and, in particular with this event, that when the players bring their award certificates of participation, medals and trophies back to their schools and home communities there is a positive impact on all those who see and celebrate them.

Pride and Joy:

The Teams:

Ambalavayal High School:

Ayyankolly GTRS:

Chollady GTRS:

Erumad High School:

Kakkundi Middle School:

Kappala GTRS:

Pattavayal Middle School:

Ponnani GTRS:

The Hardware:

BONUS PIC — Overzealous Linesman with Makeshift Referee Flag:

After three months of living here, I realized just how little I know of the “neighbourhood” which I have resided in all this time. Sure, I have taken little walks through the area from time to time, but I realized that there was a gigantic chunk of territory which I knew nothing about. I decided to spend the afternoon on “walk-about”. I put on some sunscreen, put away my wallet, and took only the bare essentials with me.

As I walked, the better maintained dirt roads slowly changed into pitted and deeply rutted channels best suited for 4x4s or motocross bikes. The houses began to squeeze together in unseemly fashion – jutting out at odd angles in contrast to the patterned homes just before. It quickly became apparent that I had ventured into one of the hundreds of unplanned settlements dotting the urban landscape of Dar es Salaam. The scattered cafes and dukas (shops) along the laneways were mostly boarded up. The people wandering the streets or sitting in shade alongside the road became few. As I continued to walk, I became ever more aware that there seemed to be no one living here. A silly finger game I used to play with my daughter when she was young came into mind…

“Here’s the church – here’s the steeple – open the doors… where’s all the people?”…

I continued my walk, and soon began to here strains of incredible music. Following the sound through weaving, rutted pathways, I came upon an unlikely sight. In the middle of this “destitute wasteland”, there was a large building with bold lettering emblazoned across its walls in bright oranges, reds and greens – “Mountain of Fire”. Outside, booth after booth was lining the walkways. Each was selling copious amounts of traditional bb-q, patterned kangas and booklets proclaiming scriptural “good news”. Intrigued, I walked up to the source of the incredible sounds, and was greeted by several well dressed men, loudly proclaiming, “karibu! Karibu! – Welcome, welcome!

“Here’s the church – here’s the steeple – open the doors… THERE’S all the people!”

The doors flung open, and a dizzying array of colour, sound and light emerged. Inside this giant hall – in the middle of absolute poverty – were hundreds of people dressed in their finest clothing. Men wore incredible dress shirts and pressed pants, while the women were garbed in every hue and pattern of the rainbow. A choir up front belted out sonorous gospel tunes, while the preacher pranced up and down in a cascade of emotional rides no rollercoaster could ever hope to produce! The people were all on their feet – arms and hands waving in the air to the driving beat of the music and literally dancing in the aisles. I stood in absolute awe – trying to comprehend what was before me.

Then, a brief 15 minutes later, the frenzied, driving hymn came to a slow stop – just as a train pulling into the station and seizing to a halt… The colours, sounds and lights all flowed out of the church – many stopping just long enough to grab my hand in genuine friendship – Karibu! – Welcome! As quickly as it had happened – it was gone, and the colours rushed and flowed down the streets toward home. Waiting bajajis collected families and cars filled with 10 or more people careened down the laneways. Before I knew it – the rainbows flowed and ebbed… leaving the sandy soils in their wake.

It took a few minutes to collect myself before I began to comprehend what I had just witnessed. I had come in at the very end of a church celebration that began 9:00 am that morning and let out at 2:30 pm. Prayers, song and messages were broken only by time to gather and eat together before the service began once again. This was not a simple Sunday service which you go to at 10, and expect to be out by 11… This was an Event… this was a Happening…

This was a Celebration of Life!

I walked slowly – musing over the recent events. I walked into the area, seeing nothing but poverty and pain. I left with a much better understanding. Here in Tanzania, children are born into impoverished conditions. What the developed world sees as poverty and destitution carries a much different perception here. Yes – people go hungry. Yes – children die and family members are carried away by disease which could be easily controlled. And… yet… somehow these “underprivileged” people seem to hold something that many in the developed world have forgotten – how to celebrate what is truly important.

We cannot control so much of the lot we are born with. Poverty, disease and hardship are a part of daily life for the majority who live here. Somehow, in spite of all of that, so many people here recognize what is truly important in life. Family… relationship… a celebration of life’s successes… and community – these are what people hold on to. Perhaps I have taken a small part of this home with me as well. My family, relationships and successes are things to be celebrated with passion. I can only hope that I may bring a small part of this “rainbow” home with me when I return….

Until Next Time,
“Good Night… and Good Luck”