Resilience is tested

On Tuesday and Wednesday this week I have been on a field trip to visit former students to see how they are fitting back into their communities and to assess what more our program can do to help our students become contributors to their communities.

If you are a Facebook friend you will have seen the romantic side - dramatic scenery and exotic animals - so now you can read about the less than glamorous reality. 

There are several ways to get to Malambo.  The route that goes through the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is faster and more comfortable as more of the trip is on tarmac.  But it costs a non-resident like me (still no work permit or  residence visa!) about US$50 each way so we went the slower bumpier route skirting Oldoinya Lengai and Lake Natron. In one hour the step counter on my phone recorded over 3000 ‘steps’ - that’s 3000 jolts where my leg is being battered by the gear stick and my knee by the dashboard.  In the middle seat of the Land Cruiser there is no head rest so my neck next day felt like I’d gone 10 rounds in the Dodgems.  Still, the views were spectacular!

We were able to help a motorbike taxi rider who was stranded with his passengers - mother and toddler - and a punctured tyre.  The bike, rider and mother went in the back of the truck and the toddler was on my colleagues knee in the front.  Toddler was less  than impressed at being in such close proximity to a mzungu but was bribed into silence with biscuits. We took them about a half hour’s drive into the next village where tyres could be mended.

This was the third lot of hitchhikers we’d given a lift to - the first group were happy in the back of the truck on the highway at 100km/hr.  The second group were Maasai warriors in full regalia heading somewhere special.  The women folk were also heading somewhere special.

My colleague is convinced by the notion of karma.  Because we helped someone in need on the road, we also were helped when we were stranded with a punctured tyre and a flat spare in the middle of nowhere on the way home on Wednesday.  A truck came past not long after we’d discovered our predicament and took him and the spare into the closest village with 12-ply tyre mending capability - a predictable 1/2 hour away - and so we were only delayed by about 2 hours.  In that two hours we only saw a safari vehicle - heading in the wrong direction from our point of view - and three motor bikes.

Our ‘hitchhiker’ on the return journey was  less than impressed with the situation.  We’d picked him up at Malambo about 8 o’clock so he was already 8 hours into a very bumpy journey with prolonged stops tied by the neck in the back of the truck.  We broke some twigs off an acacia bush to give him something to eat while we were stranded but it was to be another 6 hours before he arrived at his new home.

You can see in the picture that he is surrounded by bulging bags.  These are full of rock salt, rock harvested by women near to Lake Natron, the sale of which gives them an income.  When we stopped at the village near the lake we were mobbed and my colleague spent nearly an hour negotiating with all the women to get the best price but to spread the wealth around.  I stayed in the cab of the truck and was entertained by local children asking me questions and telling me fibs.  Who knows what the goat thought as the bags piled up and hemmed him in.  The rock salt will be used as a feed supplement for the cows, sheep and goats at Olkokola Mission and this truck load should last about 3 months. 

As I said, the goat had already had several extended stops.  The purpose of the trip was to visit past students and to locate possible candidates for the next program starting in August next year. We spent several hours in Digidigo first with the assistant parish priest who belatedly thought we should also meet with the parish priest who, after the chat, thought us worthy of being offered sodas which took quite a while to procure by which point I was not feeling as ‘people oriented’ as I should have been and much more fixated on the task of getting back to Arusha.

We had also stopped to see several former students, graduates of the program, to see how they were faring.  All the ‘chat’ was in fairly rapid swahili so I only have a vague idea what was said.  I will be interested to read the questionnaire forms that were completed and find a way to analyse the information garnered.

I was able to see that the students we have come from some quite isolated and remote bomas and villages and are living in quite dire circumstances, particularly those near Malambo were the long rains have failed and food will be scarce later in the year.  The landscape around these parts is dry and dusty and even 4WDs risk getting bogged in the sand.  Flies seek out moisture in the eyes, mouth and nose of people and their farm animals and are a nuisance; the mosquitoes are more of a problem with malaria being endemic.  I have been up close to the reality of other  people’s lives in Africa often but it always makes an impression and reminds me how privileged I am.

This picture is at Kasangiro near Digodigo.  The rains have been kinder here and some crops will be harvested.

My colleagues on this trip   were determined that no afflicted person should be unaware of help available and any group, no matter how big or small, was given information about the programs offered by us, by The Plaster House and by Help for the Massai.  It was a very worthwhile trip and I’m so very glad I was included.

The amazing scenery and the gazelles, giraffes and zebras and the ostriches and all the smaller birds were just an added bonus!   

More soon, love Jenny

A very African week

We must be in Africa - one of the week’s highlights was seeing the back half of a very large elephant as he stepped off the road and into the forest in front of us.  We spend Wednesday in Arusha National Park as no work on a public holiday.  The week just gone included the celebration of Eid el Fitr - a two day (or possibly two half days) holiday that isn’t declared until the evening before.  This year it could have been Tuesday and Wednesday, or Wednesday and Thursday (or even Thursday and Friday but that was only a slim chance that no-one took seriously).  It is a public holiday that tells me I’m in Africa with equal parts amusement and exasperation!

Sewing group - making slings to suspend babies in when they are being weighed at the Flying Medical Service  Clinics.

I’ve been working on getting a speaker from Femme International to come and talk to the girls about sexual, menstrual and reproductive health for over a month and late Friday last week FI finally sent an invoice and confirmed a speaker for Thursday June 6 if we had paid and if it wasn’t a holiday for Eid.  The problem was that I couldn’t get to the bank to pay until Tuesday and if that was a holiday then the speaker wouldn’t be able to come on Thursday even though it wasn’t a holiday because we wouldn’t have paid and the materials for the workshop couldn’t be prepared until I had.  If Tuesday wasn’t the holiday then I could pay but FI couldn’t come because Thursday would be a holiday!  What a way to run a country!  Africa! (I did make the payment on Tuesday and have had a speaker confirmed for Thursday next week!)

Wednesday we had a lovely day at Arusha NP.  Lots of birds, mammals and reptiles and a glimpse of the snowy peaks of Mt Kilimanjaro.  Look at Steve’s Blog for lovely pictures.

Yesterday I had three jobs to do - 1. get money from the ATM, 2. transfer it into my M-Pesa account on my phone to pay for electricity and 3. get some laminating done for Monday’s maths lessons.  I walked down to the shops with high hopes.  The CRDB ATM was not working, neither was the NBC ATM. Oh well, hamna shida, I gave all the 10,000/= notes I had to Glory in the M-pesa office so at least we would be able to pay the electricity.  Luckily (!) the electricity was off for about 12 hours on Wednesday so we hadn’t used up all of our last top-up.  I tried the first laminating shop - they don’t actually do laminating there, they send it away to be done and you pick it up later so no use to me.  The next laminating shop - one I’ve used before - was closed.  The third and final one was open but had run out of pouches!  So I walked home with one job half done.  Not a great result even by  Tanzanian standards.  Today I took the pages needing laminating and some of my own laminating pouches down to the third shop and did the job using his machine.  I gave him 1500/= for the electricity used! I need a visitor from Aus to bring me my laminator and a case full of pouches!

Today we also went to Shanga - one of my favourite places.  We took our collection of empty glass jars and bottles for recycling.  Shanga has workshops for glass blowing, weaving, tailoring and jewellery making, mostly staffed by people living with disability.  I bought another jug - I just can’t resist.  And I think it a social enterprise eminently deserving of support.  We are taking the students from Olkokola there next Tuesday on an excursion.

We still have no work permit or residents visa.  I have a receipt that says I’ve paid the visa fee which the Archdiocese immigration officer says I can flash if the Immigration Police ‘disturb’ me.  A trip to Uganda could be in the offing!

More from Tz soon, love from Jenny

From Olkokola

I have started getting into a bit of active interference at OVTC though I’m still not entirely sure I know how the place works.  The teachers are starting to be more open about what assistance would help them in their work and the students are super friendly.  Communication is an issue – Google translate is some help in formulating questions but my Swahili is often not up to understanding the answers I get. And anyone who is familiar with Google translate will know that putting a sentence in, translating it to a different language, then translating back can give a totally different result for example “When will dinner be ready?” → “Wakati wa chakula cha jioni utakuwa tayari?” → “During dinner you will be ready?”.  And some of my questions are much more nuanced, so goodness knows what I could be asking!

I hope I had these questions right!

I have reverted to type and have begun an assault on students’ maths skills. A 16 question diagnostic test of skills ranging from single digit counting to problem solving requiring long division revealed a range of abilities from not too bad down to none.  I have divided the students into ability groups and plan to do a 30 min intensive lesson with each group each week.  I have been preparing teaching aids including ‘miniature money’. Agnes who does lamination (including of her scarf last week!) at the local stationery store is my new best friend.

Agnes does all my laminating 

Mini money - spectacles to show size (and because I need them!)

Last week I put a poster about counting up on the dining room wall.  It is made on a recycled feed sack.  It has created some interest already and I’m planning a measurement poster next.  Students need to know the metric system as well as feet and inches.

Counting

In East Africa declarations of ‘we do this’ are aspirational – if I am told the students have a health talk timetabled on Thursdays then I don’t know if that means it happens every week, some weeks or it seemed like a good idea and may eventually happen. Patient observation is needed to see how much of what is timetabled actually does occur.  I am hopeful that a workshop for the girls on Menstrual Health will happen in the coming week but that is dependant on when the Imams decide Eidd will be – a public holiday throughout Tanzania that is declared the day before. Aaaargh‼

The boys have mastered making chairs.

From yesterday Tanzania banned plastic bags – a good thing! – but implementation may be problematic.  The western supermarkets are handing out woven fabric carrier bags; I don’t know what the small traders will do.  We have our reusable bags we brought from Australia and have made sure we have no plastic bags or wrappings in the car.  This afternoon we will shop in the neighbourhood maduka (small shops/stalls) for eggs and fresh fruit and veg so we’ll see what the (usually very resourceful) locals have come up with.

 The work permit and resident visa situation has not yet resolved so I’m still officially ‘visiting friends’ at the mission.  Our tourist visas expire in 5 weeks which is a short time in a country where bureaucracy flows like honey in winter.  Plan B could involve a quick trip to Uganda.  

I will let you all know of progress on all fronts soon, love from Jenny  

Getting to know you

Working in East Africa is a major challenge for me.  I am a very task oriented person and have to try very, very hard to be more people and relationship oriented.  

So I currently have two projects.  The most important is to get to know the people I’m working with - the teachers, the dispensary staff and the mission staff.  I’m also getting to know the students and they are getting used to having me around.

The college, soon to be renamed Huduma kwa Walimavu Olkokola (Service for people with disabilities) has a headteacher, Sinyati, a teacher for each of the vocational streams - Musa in tailoring, Salva in masonry, Elias in Ag and Livestock and Mark in carpentry.  There is also an assistant teacher in tailoring, the biggest class, Margaret. The students do all the cooking and cleaning so there are no ancillary staff.  The dispensary has two medical officers, Charles and Goodluck, and two nurses, Lucy and Laurencia, and the mission house has a housekeeper, Castissima, and a gardener, Christopher.  There is also the Flying Medical Service crew who I bump into as they come and go. Father Pat began the whole enterprise and he is in charge but he assures me it runs very well without him - lucky as he left on 6 weeks leave yesterday! At training in Melbourne we were told we needed to find a 'penguin', someone who understands and can operate in both our world and theirs.  For me that person in Castissima.  She is wonderful for testing ideas and my swahili language skills.

Last week I gave the Thursday health talk to the students, the medical officer at the clinic asked me to talk to the subject of “Healthy Food”.  I gave part of the talk in Swahili  (all run past and adjusted by Castissima) but the part on carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins and minerals defeated me!  The MO helped with translations and we were well received.  The students are very well fed at Olkokola with fresh fruits and vegetables coming from the mission’s large vegetable garden.  We are also beneficiaries of the garden - I can go in and pick the chillies Steve needs for his world famous Curried Beans and Rice! 

The teachers also need to come to an understanding of how we can work together and what kinds of assistance I can provide. They have already asked me to provide some ideas on teaching measurement.  The task oriented part of me is really relishing getting stuck into producing a set of cards for the students to work through either with their class or individually.  It’s something I can work on while I’m waiting for other things to happen - you would know, dear reader, that waiting is something we have to get very good at here in East Africa!

Here is a sample of the maths cards I have in mind.

Producing these will be fun!

And this is a poster for the tailoring class.

Hopefully Steve’s and my work permits and residents visas will be approved soon and we can finally relax.  Everything else is going really well and we are healthy and happy.

Happy Birthday to our David who turns 33 today! 

Jenny

Olkokola Vocational Training Centre

I have had a week at my work place.  These are my first thoughts.

People with disabilities (PWD) have many challenges wherever they are living in the world.  In rural and remote east Africa these challenges are magnified.  There is often no surgical remediation available so congenital abnormalities such as cleft palates and club feet go unfixed.  Children born with disabilities are often seen as a curse and a burden.  In a few families they are cosseted and protected.  It is more common that PWD are kept hidden and put on ‘survival rations’ and left to endure as best they can.  Begging is seen as about the only form of income.  PWD are not valued in the community.

The Olkokola Vocational Training Centre (OVTC) is situated at the Olkokola Catholic Mission in Ngaramtoni on the outskirts of Arusha. It is a residential college.  OVTC has the specific mission of providing vocational skills to people with disabilities so they can return to their villages and be self sufficient.

The types of disability students at the centre live with are varied in severity and impact.  The most seriously affected are those with genetic conditions such as osteogenesis imperfecta.  Their life chances are seriously diminished.  Common disability types are congenital joint malformations like ‘club foot’ which causes mobility issues and a similar condition causing rotation of the hand at the wrist which causes even more challenges.  Severe burns and other wounds leading to scarring or amputation of limbs is another category of disability.  There are also students who have issues as a result of strokes.  Students may be able to access surgical intervention to address functionality of limbs where the benefit outweighs the risks of making things worse (for example amputation following infection after surgery).

Many of the students have had little formal education.  The disabilities they live with make it all but impossible to attend their local school.  Many students have no literacy or numeracy skills and some have limited spoken kiSwahili as the language spoken in the home is Maasai or kiIraki.  All these issues add to the challenges faced by the centre and its students, and informs the education intent and strategies offered at OVTC.     

The centre’s facilities are intentionally spartan.  The only ‘given’ is that conditions are hygienic.  No concessions in the form of ramps for those in wheelchairs or using frames or crutches are provided.  These students will be returning to a world where those conveniences do not exist so they must learn to be resourceful and adaptive in the world as it is.  Students must look after themselves.  They must be able to care for their personal needs and do all the cooking and cleaning necessary for a simple life. The rule is if you cannot cook you do not eat! All students take a turn rostered as ‘cook’.  For many students availability of food is the biggest change (and delight!).  At OVTC it is abundant and students can eat until they are no longer hungry, for many, for the very first time.

OVTC works on an apprenticeship model.  The occupations students are trained in are tailoring, carpentry, masonry and agrivet.  Training is entirely practical and competency based.  Students are shown a skill and they practice until they have it right.  Then they move on to a new skill.  The skills are all relevant to what will be needed back in their village - tailoring is for the garments they will be making when they return home, like school shirts, trousers and skirts, not haute couture.    That said the course would not limit graduates who showed imagination and flair in the garments they produced.

In the woodwork class all students are currently working on making upright chairs to the one, simple design.  There are templates for each of the parts showing the shape and where the mortise and tenons should be.  Students work at their own pace asking questions and getting assistance and reassurance.  This is a much smaller class than the tailoring group but has two students who are deaf/mute and instruction is all through example and miming.  For these students starting their own business may be problematic even with excellent wood working skills; they may need to seek employment with a sympathetic boss.  Certainly their work ethic is excellent.

The AgriVet class is more heavily theoretical than the woodwork or tailoring class.  students spend a lot of class time copying notes then discussing what it means.  One consequence of this is that students in this stream must be reasonably literate in Swahili and students who are not literate would be excluded.  Students were copying word by word and quite slowly so initially at least understanding is not there.  Students have the opportunity to ask questions, the content is repeated and students are assessed as to their understanding.  As it is a small class of four students this is feasible.  Of course there is also a large practical component and local farms can be used as well as the OVTC garden and animals. 

Students will also need some business skills if they are to be successful when they  return home.  Skills in business planning and money management as well as other personal and life skills can be taught.  The local government primary school provides adult education in literacy (kiSwahili) and numeracy several afternoons each week.

Success for this college is measured by how the students make out on their return to their village.  They are sent home after 18 months training with a full set of tools to start a small business.  Their progress is monitored over the next three years.  Studies by a US PhD student show positive outcomes.

Olkokola Catholic Mission also wants to change community attitudes to disability in the villages where it works.  This might be achieved by education so people know disabled children are not a curse from God and they shouldn’t be ashamed to have a disabled child.  Then children will be cared for and fed properly and not locked in the house.  If the children have the chance to go to school their life chances will be better.  Communities needing to see examples of people with disabilities working.  Graduating students should have the chance to exhibit their skills to their village and show what they can do/make.  Then they will be considered valuable members of the community and not looked down on or feared.

I have so much more to learn about this wonderful enterprise! Then I hope I will be able to add value to what is done here.

Tumechanganyikiwa

We’ve had a busy first 4 weeks and it’s long past time I blogged about it!

The short version is we are safely here and reoriented to life in East Africa.  We have improved our Swahili.  We have a house, a (temporary) car and have started at our partner organisations.  But as always we are perpetually baffled and ‘in the dark’ about how and why things happen, hence the title, tumechanganyikwa - we have become confused!

Our house is lovely!  It comes with ‘staff’.  We have not had house help before and so are still trying to figure out how it works.  Gladness is here when we are not so it’s been a bit of trial and error.  We are yet to work out about electricity and gas bottles, I hope neither run out before we do.  We have the shopping sorted out - big, ex-pat supermarket once a week for meat and fish, and wonderful locally grown fruit and veg sold in our street (or rocky, rutted goat track that may be come impassible if the rains ever come!) bought daily.

Whenever anyone asks me about life in East Africa I tend to dwell on vehicles, roads and traffic police.  That is what makes my heart race and forget to breathe!  The car we are currently driving belongs to the Flying Medical Service, a part of the Olkokola Catholic Mission where I am working.  It is one of a small fleet of Suzuki Jimnys driven mostly by the pilots as they travel between the mission and the airport.  We only have it on a temporary basis while one of the pilots is on leave and have started ‘shopping’ for a RAV4 of our own.  This fills me with trepidation for many reasons!  I know very little about cars - they go, they sometimes even go well or they don’t go!  A friend today added to the concerns “Check it’s not stolen” he said. “My partner was arrested for owning a stolen car”.  This does not help!  I hope soon to blog about a successful purchase but it is an area of life where I am as fatalistic as the locals. If God wills!

While conservative Australian politicians dither over climate change here it is a life and death matter.  The long rains are now two months overdue.  Maize crops planted in anticipation are looking very sad, as are the farmers who planted them.  The housekeeper at the mission where I work says 'people will be hungry' and that is just the fact of it.  There is still hope for growing plants with a shorter growing season but that is only if the rain comes.

As always we have taken advantage of opportunities to look at local wild life.  A quick trip to Arusha NP three weeks ago renewed acquaintance with one of my favourites.

I hope you'll stay with us as our journey continues, love from Jenny.

ps Bread making has started again with small rolls today's output

Arriving in Arusha

I'm being very lazy (see proof below) and haven't yet written a post even though we've been here now 3 weeks.

Steve, on the other hand, has been very industrious and you can read all about our time so far in Arusha at tanzania2019-2020.blogspot.com.