Vipi!
I had to delete my old blog page because of some spam issues so I've started another one and hopefully there will be no problems!
I've actually been in Morogoro for the last 3 days. When we arrived in Tanzania, we could only get a tourist visa which means that technically its illegal for us to do any work while we're here. We were told that we had to go to Morogoro to get our business visa in order for us to start doing our programs. We went on to Zanzibar anyways and thought that we might be okay with just a tourist visa. By the end of the week, we finally got our placements for the 2 months. I will be running 3 programs: Youth activity days, teaching classes in Mahonda, and working with ZAPHA+ which is an income generating program for people living with hiv/aids . During youth activity days, we will be running sport activities and art classes. In Mahonda, which is a rural community that is a 20 minute dala dala ride from Stonetown, we will be teaching english, computer skills, and running debates. This week we were supposed to start our programs; however, we wanted to make sure that everything was legit so that in case one day we were stopped by i
mmigration officers on the street, we wouldn't be arrested or something! So instead of starting programs this week, on Tuesday we travelled all the way to Morogoro in order to get these working visas. It's a bonus for us because we're getting our trip paid for!
Morogoro is in the southern highlands of Tanzania west of Dar es Salaam. It sits at the base of the Uluguru mtns and is quite a contrast to Zanzibar. I would say that Morogoro feels like Abbotsford while Zanzibar feels like Vancouver. Mountains surround the area of Morogoro and its a smaller town so it's less busy and there are more open grass areas. Morogoro is also a mix of different religions (hindu, christian, catholic, and muslim) as opposed to Zanzibar which is over 90% Muslim. The atmosphere in Morogoro is also more relaxed and I'm not constantly being bombarded by people trying to sell me things like in Zanzibar. I still get called "MZUNGU!", which means "foreigner" according to my phrasebook (my interpretation is "hey you white person!") but it's not as frequent. I noticed that the gender differences are more obvious in Zanzibar than in Morogoro. In Zanzibar, it often feels like everything is more male dominant. The men are usually the ones working, selling goods at the market, or else just hanging around on the street. The women tend to be more conservative and stay at home either taking care of the home or the children, but in Morogoro, it seemed like there were more women out and about.
We spent the next couple days hanging around town and meeting with the 5 volunteers who are working in Morogoro right now. We had been together for orientation week in Toronto for pre-departure, but then split once we arrived in Dar last week. They also just started programming this week because they had to get their visas figured out, but it was good for the Zanzi crew because we had a chance to sit in on some of their classes and meet the youth in Morogoro. Seeing the Morogor volunteers at work is making me antsy to start doing something productive with my time here.
I had to delete my old blog page because of some spam issues so I've started another one and hopefully there will be no problems!
I've actually been in Morogoro for the last 3 days. When we arrived in Tanzania, we could only get a tourist visa which means that technically its illegal for us to do any work while we're here. We were told that we had to go to Morogoro to get our business visa in order for us to start doing our programs. We went on to Zanzibar anyways and thought that we might be okay with just a tourist visa. By the end of the week, we finally got our placements for the 2 months. I will be running 3 programs: Youth activity days, teaching classes in Mahonda, and working with ZAPHA+ which is an income generating program for people living with hiv/aids . During youth activity days, we will be running sport activities and art classes. In Mahonda, which is a rural community that is a 20 minute dala dala ride from Stonetown, we will be teaching english, computer skills, and running debates. This week we were supposed to start our programs; however, we wanted to make sure that everything was legit so that in case one day we were stopped by i
mmigration officers on the street, we wouldn't be arrested or something! So instead of starting programs this week, on Tuesday we travelled all the way to Morogoro in order to get these working visas. It's a bonus for us because we're getting our trip paid for!Morogoro is in the southern highlands of Tanzania west of Dar es Salaam. It sits at the base of the Uluguru mtns and is quite a contrast to Zanzibar. I would say that Morogoro feels like Abbotsford while Zanzibar feels like Vancouver. Mountains surround the area of Morogoro and its a smaller town so it's less busy and there are more open grass areas. Morogoro is also a mix of different religions (hindu, christian, catholic, and muslim) as opposed to Zanzibar which is over 90% Muslim. The atmosphere in Morogoro is also more relaxed and I'm not constantly being bombarded by people trying to sell me things like in Zanzibar. I still get called "MZUNGU!", which means "foreigner" according to my phrasebook (my interpretation is "hey you white person!") but it's not as frequent. I noticed that the gender differences are more obvious in Zanzibar than in Morogoro. In Zanzibar, it often feels like everything is more male dominant. The men are usually the ones working, selling goods at the market, or else just hanging around on the street. The women tend to be more conservative and stay at home either taking care of the home or the children, but in Morogoro, it seemed like there were more women out and about.
We spent the next couple days hanging around town and meeting with the 5 volunteers who are working in Morogoro right now. We had been together for orientation week in Toronto for pre-departure, but then split once we arrived in Dar last week. They also just started programming this week because they had to get their visas figured out, but it was good for the Zanzi crew because we had a chance to sit in on some of their classes and meet the youth in Morogoro. Seeing the Morogor volunteers at work is making me antsy to start doing something productive with my time here.
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