Where did November go?

Well another month has gone and I’ve been procrastinating over this post for weeks!  This morning (and the next morning as it happens!) I’m listening to the cricket Aus v Pak, biting the bullet and getting my thoughts down on (virtual) paper…

The month started well with a visit by Zoe Manders-Jones, Program Director of the Australian Volunteers Program and Colin Collett Van Rooyen , Regional Director of AVP.  It’s always a pleasure to show visitors around Olkokola Catholic Mission, I am so proud to show off all the good work that is done by the Flying Medical Service (FMS), the Olkokola Dispensary and the Centre for the Physically Handicapped.  We had been successful in getting a grant from Australian Volunteers in this year’s Community Grants Scheme so I was able to show the visitors what we planned to do.  The weather was perfect and Mt Meru was on show.  The centre is in a lovely setting.

I have also felt like I’ve made progress on other fronts, visiting the Teacher Training College that specialises in  Special Needs to organise to have a teacher for the deaf visit for some specialist training for our trainers next year (I hope it wasn’t an African “Yes”) and forging links with Vocational Training Colleges and other educational institutes (even though we aren’t one!!).  These were all part of my original assignment plan so it’s good to get them ticked off.

The mathematics homework box is going well.  Doing voluntary mathematics is after dinner entertainment evidently.  I’m excited to get the self education room underway - that’s what the CSG from AVI was for - funded by Wheeler Foundation.

Now the tricky part. I was given some money by some very kind and generous members of Hamilton Uniting Church congregation and it was set aside to use for a special project bringing infants with cerebral palsy and their mothers from remote areas serviced by FMS so they could have specialist treatment here in Arusha - an intensive 4 week program to train the mothers in giving physical therapy to their babies.  The money has paid for bed and board for the families at a guest house in Arusha.  This has been so much more complicated than I had imagined!

Our protocol specified that families must understand that cerebral palsy is not something that has a ‘cure’.  But such is the belief in modern medicine that it has proved impossible to convince the families that their infants will never walk.  The therapy is to strengthen muscles so the infants will be able to hold their heads up and possibly roll over but that is really the limit.

Now I’m worried that all we’ve done is set the families up for a huge let down, giving them unrealistic expectations despite all we’ve said.  And to make matters worse a visit to an eye specialist has shown that two of the babies have no sight at all and one additionally has no hearing.  It seems the mothers did not know, so either the clinic medical officers had not tested for this or had not told the mothers in a way that they understood or believed.  It is heartbreaking.  So the mothers will return to their villages next week with infants that are not only not ‘fixed’ but are now more disabled because they are now blind as well.  I feel like it has all been a disaster! I hope it doesn't stop the families using the clinic services or drive them into the clutches of witchdoctors or evangelical preachers in their search for a cure!  I don’t know how much of this we could have forseen and how much was a Rumsfeld ‘unknown unknown’ as much of what happens is!  More on this next time when I’ve processed what happened - the ethics of it all is so difficult in the context of where these families live and their nomadic lifestyle.   

On a more up-beat note, back to my core mission.  The participants in our program are trained using an apprenticeship model.  The trainers are skilled tradespeople who demonstrate how to do each task and then help the participants to refine their work.  It is “on the job” learning.  At the moment the carpentry and masonry students are building the new teaching and learning space.  It will reduce the crowding in the tailoring room - 28 students is about 10 too many in there - and allow us to give more meaningful tasks to some of the most disabled participants - those who realistically won’t ever be able to use a sewing machine.

We were privileged to be invited to the ‘after party’ for the baptism of the younger sister of James, one of Steve’s local bird watching mates.  It was a lot of fun.  Rachel, the baptismal girl, is 14 years old and will start at secondary school next year.  For this event she was dressed almost like a bride and had a similarly dressed attendant, like a bridesmaid.   It was very surprising but possibly quite new ‘tradition’.  We met James’ grandfather who is very old - the family thinks he may turn 100 next birthday - and also his parents, siblings, aunts and uncles and cousins. I even had a cuddle of his one year old nephew so the infant’s mum could eat her lunch unencumbered.  The party involved food and drink for about 300 family and friends.  All the neighbours from the village were there too.  There was music - a DJ with generator and speakers - and speeches.  I’ll add some pics when Steve returns from Rwanda.  Look at his blog for the story of his trip to speak at a conference in Kigali.

Also this month we have had our annual In-Country Meeting.  The ICM is a chance for all the AVP volunteers in Tanzania to get together to learn from each other and from outside experts.  This year the theme was around inclusivity especially of people with disability but also gender diverse and all the well recognised ‘isms’ - race, age, sex.  It was a very interesting couple of days at a lovely venue up on the crater wall near Karatu called The Retreat.  Staying in such a place is a luxury but it is regarded as a ‘Thank you’ from the program - our normal living conditions are far less salubrious - and it gives that bit of emotional distance from our work to be able to see it more clearly and realistically - something that is hard when you’re in the middle of it.  At ICM we met the volunteers who live in Dar es Salaam and I discovered one is a Melbourne Demons supporter but unfortunately his assignment has just finished so I’m back to feeling like the only Dees supporter in Tz.

December has arrived while I’ve been writing this and so, now this month, we are looking forward to showing our dear friends Lou and Rob Drummond around the northern safari circuit of Tanzania - Ngorongoro, Serengeti, Speke Bay, Lake Manyara and Tarangire.  It’ll be fun.  They are also Africa specialists having had two years in Zimbabwe as Australian Volunteers in the 1990s.

On a sad note my dear Uncle Allan died this week.  We saw him and Auntie Lyn just before we left.  We will not be able to go home for his funeral - it’s just too far from Sakina to Ouyen! - but will be thinking of all the family and missing them enormously this week and next.  It’s a good reminder that we need to try harder to remember to use Skype and stay in touch - has to be part of breakfast time with the 8 hour time difference.

I hope I’ll get another blog post written to wrap up the year at work before we head off on December 28 for our safari, but knowing how long this has taken I wouldn’t be holding my breath in expectation!

Love from Jenny