Mahonda youth at Ushujaa

We had the Mahonda youth come up with a drama to perform at Ushujaa last Saturday. For the volunteers, that was our last Ushujaa and we thought it would be great to end it off by inviting the Mahonda youth to come out to Mwanakwerekwe. The drama that the youth put together was based on the themes of substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, and stigma. Juma a.k.a. J. Doss (his music artist name) sang a song about how we should not stigmatize those who are infected with HIV/AIDS. As I've mentioned before, the Mahonda youth are very interested in HIV/AIDS peer educating. Unfortunately, the youth in Mwanakwerekwe were not very receptive to this drama. Because the drama was all in Swahili, we couldn't really tell if the comments or the calls from people in the crowd were in support of the drama or not. But then Carlos told me that it was going really bad and that they crowd "does not have good behavior". Juma didn't understand why the crowd was making fun of them and the rest of the group looked really discouraged. Catherine and I told them that for the group to perform a drama on HIV/AIDS infront of their peers in a society where HIV/AIDS is so stigmatized takes a lot of courage. We also explained that not everyone will agree or be receptive to your message either because they don't understand or it's an uncomfortable issue for them. However, the only way to try and change that is for each individual and the group to continue to be vocal about these issues to increase awareness about substance abuse and HIV/AIDS.

Working with the members at ZAPHA+ has been so much fun. For the 5 weeks we were with the group, we focused on English speaking and dialogue related to business-english. Most of the members that we work with are involved with the income generation activites at ZAPHA+. Catherine and I thought about the types of words and sentences structures that should we help the class with which would be beneficial for them in a business setting. We started out with greetings which we did with them every morning as they would come into class. Then we moved on to asking questions, personal pronouns, and prepositions. We also taught them new vocabulary related to business and marketing, such as capital, credit, bankruptcy, etc. The activity that worked really well with the group was having them do short skits with each other. In pairs, we would have them play out a scenario related to a certain occupation. In these skits, the individuals would practice using greetings, asking questions, incorporating pronouns and prepositions, and using the vocabulary they learned. The group knows more English than they think they do, so it has been very encouraging to see them develop more confidence in trying to speak as much English as they can. They work really well together as a group and they try really hard to learn as much as they can.

Safari Blue

The Morogoro and Tanzi crew did a snorkeling tour this past weekend. It was one of the best days of my life!

In the morning, we had a bit of a rough start. We were supposed to be in Fumba by 9:30 am, so we hired a private taxi that was arranged through Shemsa. Fumba is a villages outh of Stonetown. We were supposed to get picked up at 8:00, but not surprisingly we waited for over 20 minutes when we finally had to wake up Shemsa to get her to call the taxi driver. By the time he arrived at our apartment it was 8:45. Then, instead of heading to Fumba right away, he had to find a place to fill up the gas and to put more air into the tire. We drove around to a couple places before we found someone who could help us. At this point, it was after 9:00 and we had to be at our destination in 30 minutes! To top it off, he pulled over again to the side of the road because something was wrong with the engine. He had Quinten get out of the passenger side and lifted up the seat to check what was wrong. He puts the seat down and tells us that there’s something wrong with the vehicle and it would be too dangerous for him to drive. His solution was to call for another vehicle. It was 9:15 and we’re all standing on the side of the road contemplating what to do. We spot another private taxi driver, so Lonny and Tally go over to bargain a good price; however, our driver goes over and starts yelling at the other taxi driver telling him that we’re his passengers. He did the same thing when we tried to get a couple taxi’s to stop for us. Eventually we finally get on the private taxi that we tried to bargain with first. Even after all this mess, we arrived at Fumba only 15 minutes late.

Fumba is a village found on the southwest portion of Zanzibar. It is on the Fumba peninsula near Menai Bay. Since 1997, Menai Bay has been protected as a conservation area and contains coral, dolphins, tropical fish, mangrove forests, and sea-turtles.

When we arrived at Fumba, we met our tour guide Simba who loaded us up on a hand-built outrigger canoe called a “ngalawa”. We saw dolphins swimming near the ngalawa’s and then stopped at this tiny sand bank where we picked up our snorkeling gear. It was my first time snorkeling and it was fantastic! We saw fish that looked like Dora from the movie “Finding Nemo”. There were tons of zebra fish that would swim right up to you and big schools of fish that were iridescent. The trumpet fish and angel fish would swim closer to the bottom of the Indian Ocean so they were harder to see. It would be easier for you to visualize these sea creatures if I knew their official names rather than trying to describe them all by color and shape and with Nemo references! We snorkeled for about an hour before heading back to the sandbank where we had pineapple, coconut juice, and a sweet treat called "kashata" which can be compared to peanut brittle.

We sailed on to a lagoon which was surrounded by mangrove trees. Nine species of mangroves are found in Zanzibar and these plants are unique because they only grow in salt water. We swam around for a little bit but then Katie’s necklace fell off and the key and ring that were on the chain fell to the bottom of the lagoon. Luckily she found the key, but the ring was from her boyfriend and unfortunately we never ended up finding it. After this ordeal, we sailed over to another island where we were served a seafood lunch. They told us to take two plates because there was a lot of food! We had rice, tomato sauce with tamarind, tomato sauce with coconut milk, tuna fish, fried ugali, calamari, another local white fish that I can’t remember the name of, and slippery lobster. At this point, your belly is so full to the max, but there was still more to come. We did a fruit-tasting which was the second best thing on the trip after snorkeling. We ate jackfruit (fenesi), passionfruit (pesheni), mangoes (embe), mandarin oranges (chungwa), pineapple (nanasi), bananas (ndizi), and sugarcane. To finish off the meal, they served coffee (kahawa) with amrula and a sweet jelly desert called "hlua". The rest of the trip was spent lounging on the beach, swimming in the Indian Ocean, or climbing the baobab tree.

At the end of the trip, we sailed on a handcrafted dhow which is an ancient Arabic sailing vessel that has large, billowing sails. They structures are beautiful and I love how they look against the bright blue water. I've also noticed that Zanzibar has incredible blue skies and turns fiery orange and red as the sun goes down.

The trip went over and beyond what I expected, especially when the whole tour cost $50US per person!. They provided unlimited drinks on the boat as well as on the island where they fed us way too much food! What makes this tour company even more unique is its promotion of sustainable ecotourism.

Eleanor Griplas, the owner of Safari Blue, started up this company over 10 years ago. A majority of the hired staff is from the village of Fumba, most of whom were subsistence fishermen, as opposed to only hiring people from the mainland. Many restaurants, tour operators, and hotels in Zanzibar hire people for Dareslaam which leaves fewer jobs for the people in Zanzibar. All of the Safari Blue staff is from Zanzibar, except for Eleanor who from her accent sounds like she’s from England. Safari Blue also contributes to donating funds towards helping the people in Fumba village such as building a nursery school. What’s even cooler is that Safari blue is also involved with building a mosque on Kwale Island which is where we stopped for lunch. I also noticed that the women on staff still wear headscarves, but they are specially made headscarves with the Safari Blue colors and logo. This goes to show that Eleanor respects the importance of the Muslim culture in Zanzibar and puts in the effort to develop great relationships with the staff and local people. If anyone decides to go to Zanzibar in the near future, I suggest that you do Safari Blue!

Chakula Tayari!

The Morogoro volunteers came over to the island this weekend for a visit. It had been pouring rain all week in Stonetown, but we lucked out for the weekend and hot, sunny weather! On Saturday we took them to Paje beach and then Shemsa cooked up a big feast for all the volunteers and the program officer’s that night. In order to cram 15 people into her living room for dinner, we took away the couches and set up a big mat on the floor. This was the similar to our very first dinner in Zanzibar. Because of Eid, Shemsa had a big dinner with her family and friends to celebrate the ending of Ramadan. We all sat together on this big mat and ate our meal on the floor. It was like an indoor picnic!

For dinner, Shemsa made pilau, sugar-cane flavored noodles, fried mashed potatoes, mkate wa fute, and a cabbage, tomato dish. For dessert we had dates, pineapples, candy coated baobab seeds, and chocolate chip, banana cookies which Catherine and I made from scratch! In general, the meals we have in Zanzibar are usually high-carb with lots of rice, noodles, potatoes, cassava, buns, or other bready foods. Not good for digestion! Then she usually makes a vegetarian side-dish as a few of the girls are vegetarian. I am a carnivore, so the only meat I get is at restaurants and street vendors. She also really loves to make cassava. It has a similar taste to potatoes and can also be used to make “potato” chips. Cassava chips are excellent! I’m not a fan of when she uses the leaves of cassava. It tastes like flavored grass and has this grainy texture like I’m eating a mouthful of sand. Everything is either flavored with sugarcane, ginger, or cardamom. We had what we call “sugar beans” and “sugar noodles” once. Sugarcane should never be put with beans or noodles. The first time (and the only time) we had these dishes I took a heaping amount because I expected a dish with beans or with noodles to be salty. I had to force the food down because I would have felt bad leaving a heaping mound on my plate. We ate very little of both dishes which Shemsa must have picked up on because they were never made again, that is until the Morogoro volunteers came over for dinner. Personally, sugarcane is great of chewing only!

I absolutely love it when Shemsa makes mkate wa fute. It looks like flat bread but puffier. This type of bread is made with coconut, flour, and sesame seeds. You can buy them at any street vendor, but the home-made stuff is the best! I also really like chapatti. It’s a nice little snack on the go. There’s only one street vendor where I always buy my chapatti from because they serve them hot and it has just the right amount of flakiness around the edges and softness inside. Delish!

Among many other things in Zanzibar that I will miss, I will definitely miss the convenience of stopping at the street vendors for food which can be found at every street corner or along a strip of duka’s. They all serve the same things: chapatti, chips (a.k.a. fries), samosas, shredded cabbage salad, sandwiches, things that look like sugared donuts, and meat kabobs. As long as you try to ignore the fact that there may be a few flies flying around in the glass case that holds the food, the food is pretty tasty.

Putting my life into the hands of a dala dala

Everyday that I take the dala dala, I fear for my life...ok well maybe that's an exaggeration BUT these dala dala driver's are kind of crazy!

They bust down the road, sometimes poorly paved, as fast as they can and then jerk to a halt when they have to let someone off or on. I don't think there's a speed limit and I don't think they ever look at their speedometers. In fact, the speedometers on some of the dala dala's don't even work. I noticed that yesterday when I was sitting in the front seat. I laughed out loud.

Then you have the money collectors on the dala dala. I don't really know what to call them, so I refer to them as the dala dala conductor. They hang off the back of the dala and yell out the name of the bus to get the attention of people on the street. Sometimes when we're waiting for the dala dala to fill up, the conductor will yell and hit the side of the dala dala several times in order to make even more noise to attract potential customers. The driver often leaves the vehicle running and will also add to the noise by revving the engine. What a waste of gas! plus my poor lungs have to inhale all the fumes. They also like to try and rip us off when we pay our fare because we're mzungus therefore they charge us "mzungu price". I don't let them get away with it. I demand for my change (in swahili I might add!) or else I just give him exact change of what I would normally pay every other time I take the dala dala.

The dala dala conductors have to make a certain amount of money a day which they pay to the driver. Whatever money is leftover they get to keep for themselves. So it's beneficial for them to cram in as many people as they can into the vehicle. The comfort of the passengers is not a priority. Even when there's absolutely NO room, the conductor will still take people on and point out a tiny crack of space as being "lots" of room. That doesn't quite work if a bigger lady or man gets on the bus so we all end up pretty much sitting on each other in the end. All the kids sit on their mom or dad's lap. Otherwise they get passed down to other random people. Poor Tally had some guy's armpit in her face one ride. People also bring their big bags of potatoes or baskets of food into the dala dala which adds to more squishy-ness. If there's no room for their goods inside the vehicle, then it gets strapped down on top of the dala dala. During one ride, some guy needed to bring a desk home, so the conductor scampered up to the top of the dala dala and hoisted the desk up with the 10 bags of potatoes and piles of wood planks already on top. Even before the conductor has a chance to come down, the dala dala is already driving down the road! I'm just waiting for the day when the conductor will be thrown off the back of the bus.

ZAPHA+

Next Saturday (November 15), Catherine and I will be helping the members at ZAPHA+ (Zanzibar Association of People living with HIV/AIDS) to run an openhouse to help promote the organization as well as their income generation program.

One of the programs offered through ZAPHA+ is income generation. ZAPHA+ really focuses on trying to improve and increase a positive living standarad among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Through income generation, PLWHA's are given the opportunity to learn new skills and tools to help them develop their own businesses in the future in order to increase their personal income. The most developed products are their hand-made scented soaps. They sell to local tourist shops, hotels, and resturants in Stonetown and in a few weeks, they will be attending the International Trade Fair taking place in Rwanda. They haven't had much training in marketing and advertising, but want to be able to expand their market internationally one day. In the past, members of ZAPHA+ involved with soap-making have held exhibitions or events in Stonetown setting up booths in the market to help promote their products. However, recently, there has been little work put into marketing their products.

The feeling I get from the group is a lack of motivation, direction, and initiative. Some members expressed the frustration of only seeing little payback from selling their products, so they don't see how it is beneficial for them to put in so much effort into an event to promote their products. Our hope is that by organizing this openhouse and creating a portolio on how to run an event, this will become something that they will continue to use once we leave. We feel that there is great potential for their products if only they could take more initiative.

This week Catherine and I will be putting together brochures and posters to advertise for our openhouse. Already it has been a challenge just to get information from the group about their soaps, finding out if we can get a permit for the location of our event, as well as what the budget will be to have the culinary group at ZAPHA+ cater the event. There seems to be no sense of urgency to have things organized well in advance and a lack of accountability. This is one thing that can be challenging when working with the people here and trying to make progress on a project. Things are just done on its own time.

Scary looking mzungus

Most of the kids in Zanzibar think we're amusing; however, we've had a couple incidents coming back from Mahonda where the children were absolutely petrified of us to the point where they broke into tears!

Catherine and I were taking the dala dala back from Mahonda and a mother with her son (about 2-3 years old) came and sat down beside us. The mother put her son on the seat beside Catherine when all of a sudden he starts wailing! He refused to sit down let alone even look at her, so he sat on the either side of his mom closer to me. Luckily he was barricaded from my presence by another women was sitting in between us. He would peek over at me or Catherine every so often, but he would get so scared that he would only stare ahead and refused to look over to the right or left. Then when they were getting off the dala dala, he was too scared to walk past Catherine. The locals on the dala dala were very amused.

The other day that we were coming back from Mahonda, I sat down beside another little boy who stared up at me with wide, fearful eyes. In my mind I was picturing the last scenario. This boy didn't cry, but he was clearly uncomfortable sitting beside me. Whenever the bus would make a sudden stop and sway, the little kid would grab onto his dad's leg for dear life so that he wouldn't bump into me. His dad kept asking him what was wrong and eventually the boy had to be moved on the other side of his dad to be further away from me. I wonder what we look like to these kids...big fangs, bulging eyes, huge foreheads, long pointy nose...I would be scared too!