So the elections do seem to have occurred with some excitement. A couple of CCM offices were burned as people in Dar and Mwanza became impatient as the release of some of the results was being deliberately delayed by CCM as they lost to the opposition in some key areas. Nothing too exciting though and life continued as normal…sort of. Yesterday, we spent the entire day without power. Given that my computer only has a couple of hours of juice and it gets ridiculously hot on the top floor that our offices are located in, it became a half-day. I spent the rest of the day sitting in my own sweat reading Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. Then, just as it was getting dark and I’m desperately trying to locate a flashlight and/or candles, the lights came back on. Thank goodness, because sleeping without a fan seems somewhat unbearable. The joke at work was that the power had been shut off by certain politicians to punish certain voters. I'll let you use your imagination on who I am talking about.
Speaking of work, it has gone into high gear over here. We learned that in Tarime, one of our focus districts, the FGM season starts in October. From October, as soon as the local leaders hear of one man and one woman dying, the FGM season officially starts. Given this news, we have decided to fast track our FGM campaign in that area and we will be travelling there next week to hold information and awareness raising sessions as well as round table discussions with local leaders and ngaribas (circumcisers). I get to go too, which is very exciting and a bit nerve-wracking at the same time J It is approximately 1 ½ day travel to get there and we will be spending 3 ½ days on the campaign itself so it is going to be a busy week. This week is also extremely busy since we have to make all the arrangements and make sure all our campaign material is ready for distribution. Since we do not even have a final approved budget, I am very concerned that this may not be as well put together as we would like, however, it is important to try and get there before the ceremonies start in order to have the largest impact possible. My concern is that there is not enough time to get the important participants (the doctors, ngaribas and community leaders) to come to the events. I have been told that this should not be a problem. As I have learned since being here, this is often said without actually being true so I am anxiously awaiting the outcome of all our hard work and am optimistically hoping for the best and doing as much as I can to contribute to the planning and implementing of our plan of action.
I have also been asked to create two new brochures. One for the organization itself and one about child marriage in Tanzania. I suppose my limited knowledge of this type of awareness raising was sufficient enough to make an impression. I'll admit that the brochure-making will be a welcome break from the training manual, however, with the FGM campaign going into a frenzy, this has also become a great opportunity to see if my time-management skills are still in good shape. It certainly helps to have electricity as I am infinitely more productive when I have a magic machine (computer) to work on.
I have also been asked to create two new brochures. One for the organization itself and one about child marriage in Tanzania. I suppose my limited knowledge of this type of awareness raising was sufficient enough to make an impression. I'll admit that the brochure-making will be a welcome break from the training manual, however, with the FGM campaign going into a frenzy, this has also become a great opportunity to see if my time-management skills are still in good shape. It certainly helps to have electricity as I am infinitely more productive when I have a magic machine (computer) to work on.
This weekend it is time to go to Bagamoyo (which means “lay down your heart” in Kiswahili). This is a very historical part of Tanzania as it was the original capital of German East Africa and a large trading port. I also hope to go to another market and there will also be a tent-buying trip since there are plans in the work to go camping in Selous Game Reserve in the next few weeks. Although I have never been camping in a tent before (!), I’m quite sure I’ll be very good at it. I’m more concerned about my trip next week as there is a large chance that we are only going to have access to holes in the ground and buckets with strings as our bathroom facilities. This should be fun. Given that there will probably not be much internet access available I will most likely just give one large update of my trip this weekend to Bagamoyo and my trip next week to Mwanza and Tarime when I get back. Wish me luck (and pray for proper toilets and showers :)
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