Jambo (Hello), from Tanzania!
I arrived in the middle of the night between the 24/25th of January to Dar Es Salaam Airport. Instantly, I felt the heat. It was 11:30 at night and I was in a full sweat trying to fill out immigration papers. After a half an hour passed filling out forms, I sat waiting in a chair for my name to be called. A man wearing a blue millitary outfit came walking toward me. He held out my passport, showing me the photo page. "Is this you?" he asked. I thought I was about to be punished for something. Quite the opposite however, as he handed me my passport and welcomed me to his country. I skimmed the pages to ensure the stamp was there, and continued on through customs. I found my baggage and placed the first backpack on my front, and the larger of the two bags on my back. I moved through a set of doors, and stepped outside. There to greet me was Domitella, a member of the local Youth Challenge International team. She had a driver with her and the three of us went to the car, setting out for the Safari Inn for my first night. From the backseat, I had my eyes wide open taking in whatever sight I could see in the darkness. I was here, I had made it to Africa!
The room was on the thrid floor, and with each step came further anticipation of meeting the others from Youth Challenge. I came to the end of the hallway and was pointed to my room. A knock on the door had Charles, Andie, and Kanny come into the hallway to introduce themselves. I did my best to engage in conversation, but I was done. Two flights over 10 hours each, combined with flying through 11 different time zones, had me exhausted. I quickly took the mosquito net out of my bag and prepared for some much needed rest. I awoke to a generator outside the building, it was 6am. So much for catching up on sleep. I lied in bed until 9, and then got up to go for breakfast. I came downstair and met the other two girls, Alysha and Martia. Kanny handed me a phone and told me I could call my parents and tell them I arrived safely. I was then greeted by a man. He said something in his language, I noded and assumed food would follow. A bananna, tea, and two pieces of bread arrived, and I was off to a great start. From there, we repacked whatever things we used the night before and prepared for the boat trip over to Zanzibar. The taxi took us through the city streets of Dar Es Salaam, and we arrived at the ferry terminal. It was scheduled to leave at noon, a look at the clock tower told me we had 5 minutes to get on the boat. As the taxi pulled into the terminal, people began to run beside our car. They were flashing me the badge they had on, repetadly telling me they were licensed. Not knowing what that meant, or where their badges came from, I fought to get my own bag out of the trunk of the cab. We made it down the ramp and got onto the boat. The time was five after twelve. The boat was late, but I had no complaint. Shortly after we pulled out of the harbour, and were off to my new home for the next two months.
The wind was up, and our rocky boatride was over two hours after it began. Much like getting on, people were eager to take our bags off the boat. One of the members of our group had to make a payment to get her bags back, as a local carried them down the small ramp for her. A banner above read welcome to Zanzibar, and we began filling out another immigration form to become truly welcome on the island. The immigration form was identical to the one I filled out in Dar, and I wondered the purpose of this one. Zanzibar has its own President, and this was an example of how the island views itself independantly from the mainland. This process went quickly and smoothly, and we were in another taxi to our office. The island is beautiful. There are stunning views of the Indian ocean, and the people are gorgeous. Friendly faces uttered "Jambo" as we passed by, and I was eager to find out where I was going to live. I was stop two, as Marti and Andie landed the first homestay location. They are about a ten minute walk away from StoneTown, the main city on the island. My stop was a bit further away from the town, but closer to the office. We pulled away fromt he main road and went down an unpaved laneway to access our house. Charles, 22 and from Montreal, will my roomate at the homestay. We entered a large two story house, and put our things in the second floor room. Beside our room is the bathroom. We later learned the toilet doesn't flush, and have to do what Charles calls a "gravity flush" after each use. The shower isn't so much a shower as it is a tap that feeds the yellow bucket below that then becomes used to dump water over my body. The water is cold, yet refreshing in the 30 degree weather.
The rest of the week had us meeting at the office for full days of orientation. We met our staff, Donald and sorry I am spelling this really wrong, but his name is pronounced Shiebe. We also met a local volunteer nicknamed Macco. We were told the local rules to ensure our safety and success for the weeks ahead. A part of the orientation included learning how to take public transportation. The buses are called Dala Dala's, and they are best compared to early 90's Westfailias (probably spelt that wrong too) They seat about twelve legally, but I have already come to learn ten to tweleve on the bus is merely an average. Some have passed by with upwards of 25 people on board. Women hold children on their laps, and it is not uncommon to be handed a small child to hold during the ride. The bus Charles and I take from about a half of a block away from our homestay is the 507. It will go into StoneTown, but we have been using it to take us to and from the office. There is no set route for the busses however, nor is there a schedule. The 507 could end up taking sidestreets and get offcourse depending on the needs of the passengers. Donald told us that we have to plan a lot of extra time when traveling by Dala Dala, as it has happened that people can stop the bus to get off and go grab say a newspaper or supplies from a shop while the rest of the bus sits and waits. The concept of time is a lot different here. First, some clocks are set six hours ahead, and their day goes off of that clock. When scheduling a meeting, we have to determine if it is with standard time or Swahili time. Second, there isn't meeting times like there are back home. If there is a meeting for nine, I am told to bring a book, because many times the meeting wont happen until say at least 10. Charles and I learned this already one morning. We made it to the office at 8:30, or ontime, only to wait until 10 for the rest of the group to arrive. Things come up a lot here, and things take a lot longer to do than they do back home. We all learn to understand that we do our best to get to where we said we would be ontime, but we don't hold it against one another if we are late. Anyways, our first Dala Dala ride alone was nerve racking, but all went well. We were the centre of attention as people were curious about us on the bus. We make it to Barclays Bank, the office stop, and upon return, were dropped off at the Mombassa Supermarket. There are NO street names or numbers on the houses. Everything is based on reference points. Take for example where we get onto the Dala Dala, "at the stop beside the big tree."
Friday afternoon had us visit a few of the partner organizations. The Department of Substance Abuse was the first on the list. We were greeted by four employees at the office, and were provided with an overview of the work that gets done there. One man, very well dressed with a tie on, was introduced as a lawyer, and the others all had important sounding titles. These men work along side government initiatives, and were very pleased to have us there working with them. We were polietly given a bottle of water and shown around the facility. In the basement was an area where locals use for, as what we would call in Canada, their AA meetings. Locals, who have experinced problems with drugs, come together and support one another and give eachother ideas about how the future can be positive. I was told they work together to help themselves. I was introduced to four other members of the department in the basement as well. One man was identified as a Social Worker and he had such an amazing smile to see us there. Life is a lot different here for these workers. They all didn't have a computer at their desk, nor a phone to contact local support services. Of the four, three sat behind a desk with just a pad of paper and a pen on its top. Our job with this partner organization is to facilitate computer courses for people roughly between the ages of 15 and 30 that have previously had problems with substance abuse. We were told the class will have upwards of 40 participants. The second organization was the Department of Disability Affairs. This was an amazing experience to be allowed to come in and work with this department. The department began in 1985 as an NGO, and became an official government agency in 2008The department works closely with the Employment Act 11 of 2005, as well as with the Disability Act of 2006 to ensure rights of the disabled are represented in the workplace. The board of executives consists of a member from the ministry of health, ministry of education, a member from the social welfare department representing women, youth, and children, a representative from the First Presidents office of Zanzibar, a disabilities representative, a member from the Zanzibar labour orginization, and a member from the Zanzibar trade union. This is a powerful board, and it demonstrates the importance of the current issues. The department is facing many challenges however, and one of the major challenges is credibility, as the department is in the infant stages. Currently, the Employment Act states that 2% of employees must be represented by a disabled worker. I asked about the efforts of the labour orginization and the trade union and what rights these groups are working to protect or enhance. I was told me about how they are fighting to increase the number from 2%, and was made aware of the efforts the two groups put forward on these issues. I come from the union CUPE, and am facinated by what unions around the world are fighting for. It seems that the union in Zanzibar provides a large part of the accountibility for disabled rights in Zanzibar. The union and the government organization seem to be working together to help employeers recognize the issues surrounding equality in the workplace. Imagine however a community where most of the buildings are single floors, and businesses are small. A business would have to employee 49 employees before having to hire a person with a disability. There are few big businesses here, and finding work is difficult able body or not. It seems more efforts are needed in training people with disabilities so that they will be taken more seriously in the workforce, and remain competitive.
Learning about the issues that are facing Tanzania have been challenging. The issues are similar to ones in Canada, but the lack of resources and support for workers on these issues inhibit the ability to make change quickly. Over the next eight weeks, I will learn so much more about how these issues are currently being dealt with, and will do my small part with education while here. Much of what I will do here is teach English, as it is important for locals to be able to learn the language to further their careers. I really don't know much about what is truly happening here yet, but am very open to discovering the challenges facing Tanzania. I feel privilidged to be able to work with these orginizations, and only hope I can be a strong contributor to the programs. Life in Tanzania is far different from life in Canada. I am enjoying my work here so far, and the people are making this experience so wonderful. Both the staff at YCI, fellow volunteers, and community members always have smiles on thier faces. The culture here is so friendly, and unlike at home, complete strangers will take time out of their day to come over and say hello. I have really enjoyed my first week in Africa. My fractured heel has been a major challenge for me. It has been over 8 weeks now, and it should be feeling a lot better. I am however, forced to walk on it a lot more here because it isn't really easy to move around on crutches. I am making the best out of it though, and have been keeping a positive attitude. I now can understand some of the issues that I will be facing working with the department of disability affairs.
A quick idea of living on Zanzibar. The streets are packed full of people. There are cars, minivans, bikes, and motorbikes everywhere. A great percentage of the buildings are one floor, and there is no mall or movie theater. The houses are small, and made of concrete. The money is the Tanzanian Shilling and the last exchange received was 1490 tsh for 1 American dollar. What does 1500 tsh get you? Well here is an idea of how far money goes:
Lunch for seven of us, including bottles of soda for everyone - 34,400 tsh or $23. The meal included rice, beans, a protien, I had beef the girls had fish, and a soup used to pour over the rice. The meal was excellent, and underpriced at about 3 dollars each
Charles got his haircut, and was "ripped off" at a price of 5,000 tsh or about $3.33. Apparently a haircut can go for as little as 1000 tsh
A house here costs about 10,000 American dollars
A school teacher makes about $100 American a month, but a waitress at a private restaurant in StoneTown that caters to tourists makes about $200 a month and pretty well has to know someone to get a job.
The first phone calls home were really special for me. It felt like I was on a reality show and won a chance to talk to loved ones back home. I payed about 15 american and spoke for about 20 minutes in total. I do have a cell phone here, and if anyone is ambitious enough to buy a phone card back home, then you can give me a call. The best times to call me are from your local time (west coast of canada) from 7:30 am to about 10:30 am, or at night, only from 7 to 9 pm. Other than that, I am probably sleeping or busy at work. My number here, after going through calling card promts, it will ask to enter the number and this is it: 011255688688030
I miss everyone at home a great deal. I have been listening to my Ipod a lot and certain songs trigger memories of hanging out with friends back home. If you are reading this, I have probably thought of you while I am here. There is a lot of down time and time for reflection, and I have used that time to really appreciate the friendships and family I have back home. I am safe and happy here, and will try and send out a blog next weekend after an exciting week of events. Please post any questions you may have about Tanzania on the blog and I will do my best to answer them. Thanks for all who made it this far reading this. I will post pictures when I can, but really it takes about 40 minutes to upload a picture.
Love,
Trevor
