What a week it’s been. I returned just Tuesday night from an eventful trip to Mwanza, Tarime and Nyamwaga where we kick-started the FGM campaign. Travelling on a bus for 15 hours on Tuesday and 4 ½ hours the day before to make it back to Dar es Salaam you would think I’d have had enough time to put all my thoughts together so that this post would basically write itself. I wish! The truth is that it’s a good thing yesterday was a national holiday here because I was exhausted (and still am a little). So many new things to experience and to absorb that it will probably take me a while to process everything. I hope to include as much detail as possible about the trip in this post but be forewarned that for the next week or so there may be some posts that include stories I had forgotten to mention.
Day 1
On Wednesday last week I somehow managed to wake up at 4:30 am to jump in a cab to go to Ubungo bus station which is the central bus terminal in Dar. This is where all the big buses congregate along with a slew of salesmen selling everything from popcorn and candy to belts and shoes- all in baskets so they can hold it up to the window of the bus and you can pay them from your seat. It’s quite ingenious really and I noticed that they do this at all the main bus stops along the way. Anyway, I got to the station and although it was very dark, it was extremely busy and the hustle and bustle of the station was a little much for a half-awake mzungu. The taxi-driver was nice enough to escort me to my bus, aptly named the Lucky Star, built in circa 1970. I cautiously watched them load my bag in “the boot” or trunk for you Americans and went to find my seat. I was disappointed to find I had not been given a window seat and asked if that could be changed. It was and as I found out on the return trip, it was a better seat at that since it was near the front. (sitting in the back is almost unbearable because speed-bumps are frequent (probably influenced by the British) and the driver does not always seem to pay them much attention causing the rear end of the bus to literally fly off the road and everyone sitting in the rear out of their seat). When you’re sitting near the front however, you have full view of the road and can therefore prepare yourself for upcoming speed-bumps. The negative side of the front is that you also get to see the oncoming traffic as the bus is trying to pass another massive vehicle of some sort or is narrowly missing that bicyclist and all his bananas. Not to mention the goat that he almost hit or the cow that almost his us. A harrowing experience but certainly well worth it as I can now say that I have travelled across Tanzania. We even made it to the actual capital, Dodoma.
As you can imagine, fifteen hours on a bus is not a lot of fun. Given that toilet breaks are infrequent (just one after 3 hours and another after 6- leaving another 9 hours without a stop, except for the other three stops in deserted places where the men all jumped out and went wherever and the poor women who couldn’t hold it scampered to find a dried out bush somewhere to hide behind as they lift their kangas- life is not fair) The toilets along the road are holes in the ground similar to the one I found at the stadium. I am now getting quite good at squatting over these but am extremely glad I brought along my hand sanitizer because just being in there makes you feel dirty. After we arrived in Mwanza around 9 p.m. we grabbed our stuff and headed to our hotel for the night. I was exhausted, (strange considering I did manage to sleep a little in between speed-bumps and horn blows) I think all the excitement and the early wake-up call finally hit me and I went to bed without dinner.
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| View from the hotel in Mwanza. There's a lake behind there |
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| The famous fountain in Mwanza |
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| The Lake |
Day 2
Tarime is a small town and Mwanza is the closest “city” to it. Although I didn’t manage to see a lot of it, it is quite beautiful. It sits on the lake and is called “Rock City” because it has these beautiful rock formations all around. Since Mwanza is the closest city to Tarime, most of the journalists and news outlets are located there so we spent the morning organizing and holding a press conference about our campaign and what we hoped to achieve. This news conference was held in a tiny little office and we had to pay all the journalists to show up and report on it (not much, 10,000 TZS- approximately 5 Euros) however, it did seem a little odd. After the news conference we had an interview with Radio Free Africa which was very important as most people in the Tarime area do not have television and some can’t read so radio is the best medium to reach them with. We wanted to inform them of our campaign and invite them to attend our community awareness raising forum that was being held on Sunday. This all went off without a hitch and the journalists even had some interesting questions (or so I’m told- it was all in Kiswahili, so who really knows!)
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| Those are all journalists except for Grace, our representative, in the polkadots |
Following this, Grace and Esther went to pick up a package we needed to take to Tarime and Albert and I walked around Mwanza for a little while. We all met up for lunch overlooking the lake before heading out to catch the bus to Tarime. We barely made it to the last bus for the day and jumped on right as they were about to leave. Unlike the Lucky Star, this bus was not nearly as classy and was quite uncomfortable (almost a week later I can still feel the metal bar digging into my back) however, the view makes it well worth it. During the four and a half our trip, we passed right by the Serengeti where we saw zebra, wildebeest and gazelles and even a baboon or two that are really daring and will come up all the way to the bus. We arrived in Tarime around 9 p.m. and headed to the hotel where we ate a quick meal and went to bed.
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| View of the Lake from our lunch spot |
Day 3
This is when it really got started. After a quick breakfast we headed out into town where we met with a slew of government officials to introduce ourselves, our cause and let them know what we were planning on doing while in town. We received warm welcomes everywhere and garnered support for our cause. During the day, we met with the Community Development Officer, the District Commissioner, a very lively and colorful Anglican Bishop, the District Director, the prosecutor and a traditional community leader. As I said, all were very warm and friendly and appeared interested in the cause (again, this is what I am told as most of it was in Kiswahili). The bright moment for me was when the District Director suddenly addressed me in Dutch. As it turns out, he studied for a year in Groningen. I have learnt that the Netherlands has a sponsorship program in Tanzania that is quite well-known and popular. He told me that while studying in the Netherlands he used to make money on the side fixing bicycles. How’s that for interesting side jobs. Now he’s the District Director. As we were meeting with all these people we also managed to hang up posters and hand out brochures to those interested. It was a busy but successful day. When we were finally done and ready for a nice long shower (although the climate is much better than in Dar, it was still a hot day full of waiting outside in the sun for whichever dignitary was next on our list) we were welcomed by a hotel that, just like the rest of the entire town, was without electricity. Although they have a generator, they only turn it on for about an hour a day and it only actually generates electricity for the lights and nothing else. Thank goodness I’m used to cold showers and it was not so bad. By the way- we did have actual toilets in the hotel- thank goodness! In fact the hotels were probably an upgrade considering they had warm water and an actual bed (for the most part)!
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| Meeting the District Commissioner |
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| And the District Director (who speaks a few words of Dutch |
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| That's Albert with a little old lady whom we bought lunch for |
Day 4
This morning we were holding our group discussion with community leaders, ngaribas, a teacher, some representatives from local women’s groups and other important figures from the villages. It was to be a round table discussion to determine what some of the main issues are surrounding FGM. Although again this was all in Kiswahili, I could tell it was going well. Everybody was extremely respectful and everyone spoke at least once. There appeared to be good back-and-forth discussions going between some of the participants and Albert, our moderator, did very well in keeping everyone on point and asking questions to further the discussion. Having never seen a Ngariba before I was very curious about that. We had two present. The woman that is touching my shoulder in the group picture is one of them. Albert explained to me that one of the Ngaribas had stopped cutting and had instead offered the service of talking to the girls brought to her about their rights and the importance of education and such. However, she was told to stop this by her traditional community leader or threatened that he would advise the community to send their girls to another Ngariba. Although the parents who were sending their daughters to her were aware that she was not actually cutting, they would follow the traditional leader’s advice and go elsewhere. Now she is back to cutting, but as she explains, she only cuts a tiny little cut and does little harm.
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| Some of the participants of the round table discussion |
This day I also had the opportunity to meet some of the PEER research girls who now have their own business- a restaurant. They expertly provided the refreshments for the tea that we served around 11 a.m. They provided delicious Tchipatas (don’t really know how to spell that but they are sort of like pancakes) bananas, eggs and a very surprising tea that was made with ginger and had a little spice to it. All very good. Most interestingly, during the tea break they asked me whether in my country the males are circumcised. Quite appropriately really, they compare FGM to male circumcision which is also done in hospitals and quite acceptable. Of course they are not the same (but are they really so different?) but it is a good question to raise, especially since the lack of knowledge of the health risks associated with FGM makes it appear to many who are participating in it as if it is a safe procedure, similar to male circumcision. This is also why it is so important to focus on the health effects of FGM and not approach the subject from a moral standpoint (science is difficult to argue with, morality is always open to debate).
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| Sister Pendo, me and the PEER research girls |
As a result of this round table discussion we got some interesting information on the techniques used and the practice surrounding FGM. We also learned that the traditional community leaders are of vital importance in changing the mindset towards FGM. The community leaders present were against FGM but said that their position is unique and they needed help in convincing their fellow leaders of the importance of ending this practice. They specifically requested having a similar discussion with only traditional leaders and perhaps the doctor present. This is now a high priority in moving the campaign forward.
In the afternoon we hired a PA system- this is a SUV with speakers attached to the top and lots of loose wires hanging around everywhere. To the speakers a microphone is attached and they announce whatever you want to say through the speakers as they drive around town. We had to go with them because, as Grace told me, you can’t trust that they’ll actually say what you tell them to. As we ventured off, kids were running full speed behind us, waving at us until they couldn’t run anymore. As we drove down the main streets and through the market area we handed out more posters and brochures and it became noticeable that people were actually reading them and paying attention to what was being said. It felt like we were already having an effect. We also went into less populated areas towards the villages as those are really the people we needed to reach.
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| The PA system |
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| Our PA driver and announcer |
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| Children that came out to see what the message was |
That evening we went to a local restaurant where the Mama cooked us a whole chicken (when I say whole, I mean whole- legs, eggs and all- see picture- by the way, those are not egg yolks like I thought they were, those are undeveloped eggs (I think that makes them ovaries?!)- they taste like egg yolks, though I won’t be repeating that experience any time soon) and bananas and we drank a little konyagi (local gin- actually very good with some fresh juice, or soda as is the preference for locals) in honor of Grace’s birthday which had been the day before. We only had one drink each as the next day was to be a big one since we were having our big community awareness raising forum.
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| Mama's Chicken and bananas |
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| Chicken legs and eggs (not fully developed) |
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| Albert showing me how to eat a chicken leg/paw |
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| Tanzanian gin, quite tasty |
Day 5
We started early because we had a lot planned for the day. Our big community awareness raising event was to be held today. We set off towards the market area where we were going to hold the event. As we arrived they were starting to put up the tent. Although it didn’t look very stable (metal held together with string) it managed to last all day without problem. It took several hours to get the tent up but we were entertained by the goat sale going on right beside us. Once the tent was up, people started coming by to ask what was going on and we went ahead and started our day by handing out brochures and telling people why we were there. Noticeably, most people were interested and were actually reading the brochures and walking away to tell their friends. It looked like the day was starting successfully. In the meantime we had to find sheets to hang so we could play the awareness raising video we had brought. This was a task in itself. Although finding the sheets was no problem given that the market was right there, due to it being daylight, we had a problem getting it dark enough. We managed to get some bamboo screens to put behind the sheets and a little DIY action and we were ready to go. The guys who had been our announcers during our PA ride were also on hand to work the logistics of actually playing the movie and making sure there was sound. Again, it was a good idea to be near the market as we went back and forth looking for certain wires.
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| Putting the tent up |
As we were working on getting everything set up a small group of men formed to take shade under our tent. I was told by one of the other volunteers that they were discussing FGM and that the man sitting alone was an elder who was against FGM and he was debating with the other gentlemen about why he was against it. It was really encouraging to see that we were having an effect without even really getting started. When we were ready to start the crowd really grew. The children were drawn towards the fact that we were playing a video- I think they would have been satisfied just watching a blue screen- and we ended up with a massive group of kids (this is good since we want to instill in them the importance of this issue at a young age). The group was varied to say the least and there were old, young, men and women present. Albert again led the discussion and as an incentive to get people talking we offered t-shirts for comments or questions (regardless of which side of the spectrum they fell). The t-shirts, I have learned are a huge incentive here and people will do just about anything for them. Given that this is such a poor area, the t-shirts are a high commodity. Thankfully we had a doctor present who was able to answer a lot of the questions. Our focus remains on the health aspects and people seemed very receptive to this. The interaction was really great as people seemed to pay attention throughout the four hour event (including the children).
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| group of men discussing FGM amongst themselves |
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| Albert handing out brochures |
As we were starting the video sadly the weather turned on us and the rainy season reared its ugly head. Given that we had a loosely constructed metal tent, a generator and lots and lots of exposed wires we decided it was unwise to continue. The crowd did not seem to disappointed and the disbursement went without issue. Getting the tent down took a while and thankfully the storm held off just long. This day was truly exhausting and it is quite impressive that Albert was able to keep up the momentum and keep everyone focused and involved throughout the event. I think it was a big success.
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| Picture of a portion of the crowd |
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| More people (there must have been at least 300) |
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| Local musicians that provided some light entertainment |
Since we didn’t have lunch, we were all very hungry. We’d had Mama’s chicken two days in a row so thankfully we agreed to eat somewhere else. It had gotten quite cold in Tarime, with the rains coming and it being cooler anyway so warm tea was a welcome pre-dinner drink. Notably, this day, I received three marriage proposals and one even included the bride price offer of 20 cows. It’s good to know that even at my age I’m still worth 20 cows. The proposals were very flattering indeed. And no, I did not take any of them up on their offer, although 20 cows is nothing to laugh at. J
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| Suiter number 1 |
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| Suiter Number 2 |
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| But this little guy, Samson, won my heart! |
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| The child of one of the PEER research girls- so cute! |
Day 6
We were supposed to have an early start since we had to drive to Nyamwaga where we were having an assembly type discussion with a group of school children. We had to be there early so that we could finish before lunch because the last back to Mwanza left at 3 p.m. and if we missed it we would have to waste away a day in Tarime. Apparently only I felt the time crunch as we left an hour after we were supposed to (you would think I was used to this by now since we had been on African time throughout the trip- very frustrating). After meeting with the ward director, he escorted us to the school and the children quickly gathered around the big tree in front of the school to sit in the shade as the “assembly” began. As our discussion with the children went on we again gave out t-shirts to children who had comments or questions. I must say, the children were very respectful and engaged. There must have been at least 200 of them and they all behaved extremely well. As the morning went on, more and more people gathered to hear what we were discussing and even some of the elders from the village came and some children who did not attend the school chose to listen along which I thought was really impressive. I offered for them to join the group but they were happy to sit away from the other children. It really made me wish I spoke more Swahili so that I could have asked them why they weren’t in school. My assumption is that they cannot afford the fees for the uniform or some other hidden fee that makes the free primary education unattainable for many.
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| Albert leading the discussion |
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| The children who didn't go to the school but still listened |
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| The girls club girls taking a bow following their skit |
We did actually manage to finish on time and following an apparently very funny skit by some of the girls from the Girls Club we closed the assembly. We had a reporter from the Daily News present who was also there the day before for our community awareness raising event who shared with me that he preferred the event directed at the children because he believed it would have more impact. Although I certainly agree that children are the future (thank you Whitney Houston, now that song will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day) I believe that the correct approach is to target the whole community as it appears to be a community issue that starts with the traditional leaders, trickles down to the parents and then down to the children. Certainly changing their mindset should be part of the plan, however, I find it shortsighted to ignore the importance of the other members of the process and therefore think that the approach used during this trip (having three separate events directed at three separate groups) is a good way to approach this issue.
Anyway, we made it to our bus with time to spare and thankfully this bus was a bit more comfortable than the last one (although not much). There was no bar digging into my back but this time it was into my thigh as we were sitting three in a row in a bench seat probably made for two and a half. Again I was sitting on the wrong side and the Serengeti passed me on the opposite window. I did manage to see the same animals again, however it was from a distance.
Back in Mwanza we turned in early as we were set to return to Dar the next day, meaning we had to catch the bus at 5:30 a.m. so it would be an early wake up call.
Day 7
The bus ride was nowhere near as fun as on the way there. I guess all the excitement had worn off and I was just exhausted. Add to this the fact that we had seats at the back of the bus (I’m pretty sure mine was directly above the wheel) and the fact that I could not sleep and you get the picture. Again we had very limited (and really gross) bathroom stops. Thank god for my travel size anti-bacterial disinfectant. I had saved some cookies and sweet bread from the trip there to feed myself on the trip back and limited my water intake to that which was completely necessary. Although we stop for lunch, eating chicken out of a black plastic bag on a bus did not sound appealing to me. It apparently did sound appealing to the lady sitting diagonally in front of me as she devoured two bags (which I think is two chickens). Please picture if you will a woman who looks like a cross between Martin Lawrence as Big Mama and Tyler Perry as Madea. She was wearing her Sunday best (including a lovely hat) but had a definite butch-like quality to her that was only highlighted by the way she slurped and sucked on her chicken. She let nothing go to waste (including the bone marrow which she sucked out noisily). When she was done, with her hands still glistening with the grease she managed somehow to slide open the window and toss her bag of bones out the window. This may seem shocking, and I myself have not quite gotten used to it, but littering here is quite normal. Given that there is no central garbage arrangement all garbage is simply burned at the side of the road and I have yet to see a street that isn’t littered with all sorts of trash. I think at this point even if they had a garbage system it would be difficult to convince people to stop simply dropping their empty bottles and such onto the street.
Anyway, the never-ending chicken eating process was not even the highlight of this wonderful ride back to the city. About three hours outside of Dar the little old man sitting beside me, who was also dressed in his Sunday best suit and tie started to pick at his nose. Apparently he found gold as for the next three hours he proceeded to rub a booger between his forefinger and thumb. Yuck.
The best part of the trip was after we stopped in Morogoro. Every time we hit a speed bump (which was often) there was a strange sound coming from the undercarriage of the bus. It sounded like a child screaming. Of course, given my exposure to goats at the goat sale during the community awareness raising event I knew that it was indeed a goat. What I couldn’t figure out is whether we had hit it or something else had happened. Given that the sound continued at every speed bump and no one else seemed in the least interested in this, I deduced that we had a goat in the boot (the trunk). I was proven correct when just outside of Dar we dropped off a man who proceeded to unload his goat. I now also know why they are called kids- because they sound like children screaming. It is a painful noise to hear and somewhat unbearable.
I made it back safely to Dar right around 10 pm. After 16 hours in a bus, I was ready for a shower, some water and some food. As always, without explanation, there was a traffic jam (at 10 pm on a Tuesday night). There was no reason for it and where all the people come from I don’t know so there was a little delay in getting home. In the meantime I did learn that Wednesday is a national holiday here and so I could sleep in. Thank goodness because it felt like I could sleep for a week, especially considering the night before I had to mummify myself by wrapping up tightly in a sheet to avoid the ants that were crawling all over the hotel room (including the bed).
So there you have the gist of it. The trip was a success and I managed to survive without much fuss. (just a little frustration was aired here and there- thanks for listening those who got the brunt of it!) Now it’s back to work as normal. Given that the trip wore me out our Selous Game Reserve camping trip we had planned for this weekend has been postponed (again) and hopefully we’ll go next week. This weekend I think I am just going to relax and unwind, eat some regular food and maybe catch a couple of movies.
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