There's always something to do

The students finished for the year last Friday and have all returned to their villages for the Christmas break.  Most have gone on buses north, west and south.  The more remote have flown on FMS clinic days to their homes.  A pilot reported to me there were tears of joy from family when one of the amputees walked across the airstrip on his new leg without crutches!

Of course there was a party before departure - pilau, chicken and chips and salad.  We contributed three watermelons and a bag of lollies which were appreciated very much.

This week I have been making washable/reusable pads, and bags to keep them in, which will be distributed to school girls in the Usa River area by a Dutch NGO called 4ALLFoundation.  I’m making a trial production run of 100 pads and 20 bags to test time taken (remembering how to use a treadle machine was surprisingly quick!) and materials needed.  The production element that takes the longest time is the cutting out.  I have to figure out a way to speed that up - I’m sure applying mathematics will be the key!

So this week could have been a bit quiet.  The (American) dentist who comes occasionally to run free clinics (extractions and fillings) and distribute toothbrushes and advice had one day working out of the container next to the sewing room so I had plenty of company that day.  

Actually I received plenty of attention - someone using a sewing machine in a public setting must be selling something!  So I had people wandering in to see what they could buy.  Women really liked the idea and wanted to take them away then and there - I kept having to say they weren't ready yet (I still have press studs to sew on).  Men went one of two ways when I told them what I was making.  They either looked puzzled and embarrassed and went away quickly or tried to figure out alternate uses that would suit them.  It’s funny how men sometimes think there should be nothing that excludes them.  Anyway, if we can get excess production we’ll have no trouble selling (or giving away) the extras.

(The taboo around around discussing menstruation and sex is a huge problem so I was right in there telling men, women and children all about it - my swahili vocabulary is growing.)

This photo was on my Facebook a few weeks ago but I have included it for those who don’t see FB.  There are still so many things here that make us laugh!

And Happy Christmas to you all!

Love from Jenny

A little more on November and into December

Our mamas and babies are heading home to their villages over the next few days - one on a bus and the other two will fly back with FMS when there is next a clinic at their village.  We hope to get feedback over the next few months on the reactions of the family and friends to lack of a 'cure' and also to assess whether the mothers are continuing with the therapies to strengthen the babies' muscles.  Data on this will be important in deciding the next step in this project.  We have to weigh up the positives - improvement in the babies head control, education of the mothers in what cerebral palsy is, mothers realising they are not unique in having babies with special needs (the 'holiday' in a guest house with no housework and all meals provided and time to sit and chat with other mothers in a similar situation was something they all appreciated mightily!) against the negatives - possible unrealistic expectations and dashed hopes,  reduction in respect for what modern medicine is able to do leading to failure to immunise or bring health concerns to the clinic staff.  We may be doing more harm than good.   

Clearly education is required so mothers recognise signs of cerebral palsy in their babies and get early intervention.  Also better birthing practices and education on the dangers of prolonged labours could reduce the incidence of CP.  In rural Tanzania over half of deliveries are attended by traditional birth attendants with no medical training and often old wives tales prevail - for instance mothers are told not to eat any meat or eggs in the last 3 months of pregnancy to reduce the baby's size for an easier birth but this also damages the baby's brain and overall development, and the mother's health. 

Also education about what modern medicine can and can't fix - there is no dawa (drug) to cure the common cold, or regrow an amputated limb or fix a damaged brain.  But good ante-natal care and birthing practices would go a long way to addressing the problems of peri-natal and maternal mortality which are still far too common here and of other birth complications including fistula in mothers and brain damage, due to lack of oxygen during protracted birth, in babies.

The ethical question remains - is it wrong to prolong the life of a community member who cannot be maintained realistically in a semi-nomadic community?  There is no alternative community for these children to live in.  They will mostly die young.  Their needs may be neglected because there are not enough resources to go around and, as the disabled are considered a burden and a curse, they may be hidden away where neighbours cannot see them and have no intellectual stimulation, no life.  Yet these babies are loved!  I see it in the interactions between these mamas and their babies.  They have agreed to come to Arusha because they want what is best for their babies.  I cannot say it would be better if these babies had never lived.  It is a question with no right answer.

As promised, here is a pic from the baptism on November 17.  This lovely baby is the nephew of the baptismal girl.  He's not totally impressed with being handed to the mzungu but did doze off.

And a picture of a giraffe is always worth posting - from a trip to Arusha NP on November 9 with fresh, new volunteers recently arrived from Port Fairy.  l love being with friends when they see their first giraffe - it's such a magical experience.

And our girls starting to line up for a photo with the speakers from Femme International who came on Thursday Dec 5 for their final follow up visit on matters related to menstrual health - these girls inspire me with their resilience and perseverance in the face of huge barriers.

Hopefully one more post before the end of the year,

Love from Jenny

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