Halfway Point!

After a quiet last couple of weeks, the work with the farmers of Ilima has started to pick up. Monica and I spent the better half of this past week visiting farms and interviewing villagers regarding their experiences raising chickens. We have had a remarkable response thus far. Ilima consists of an extremely helpful and enthusiastic core group of people. It has been clear from the survey answers that regardless of some of the difficulties in raising and caring for the birds, these people are willing to work hard and want to learn more.

Illustrating this fact is that the Chairman of the village has made point of coming with us to each farmer to ensure that we are visiting the right people. The farmers' appreciation is also evident as seen by our ever growing bag of hand picked oranges, bananas and ground nuts. While our long term objectives are constantly being reevaluated, we are hoping that by the time we are finished in Ilima we will have set up a vaccine campaign led, in part, by some of these farmers.

Today, we hosted our first kitchen meeting with a group of farmers who had previously received training. This was definitely an experience but we managed, with the help of at least one translator, to get our ideas across- the doughnuts and tea didn't hurt either. Tomorrow, we will be part of a much larger meeting with the entire village which should be a very good opportunity to address all the people of Ilima.

Other than the work, we are gaining some valuable life lessons...

If someone offers you creamy home-made brew in their house at 9 am, you accept the invitation and try your best not to focus on the taste or the fact that you are drinking out of a bucket shared by everyone.

If you are trying to get to Uyole, stop the bus at Uyole instead of taking it 20 minutes outside of town and trying to find your way back with city buses.

It can be difficult to get people to help you look for something if you cannot articulate what you are looking for. The degree of difficulty greatly increases when it is a contact for your right eye since contacts do not exist in Tanzania and are of course, transparent. As a result, I am currently blind.

Proper spelling of names is important during data collection. Even more important is realizing people often have more than one last name, can have more than one wife, and none of the chickens on their property may be in fact theirs.

Football (soccer) brings everyone together especially if you want any African team to win. If you don't, best to fake.

When taking a bus, try to get on one that has a door that is able to close and can go more than 30 km/h without looking like it will fall apart. Also, accept the fact that if you are over 6 feet tall, you will not be able to stand up and this will be very funny to everyone else as you try to squeeze in.

According to Canadian social norms, having braces when you are an adult is uncommon. According to Tanzania, it ranges from hilarious to terrifying. People either think I have great decorations for my teeth or I was recently punched in the mouth.

People here are genuinely kind and caring and will do everything to make you feel at home.

Cheers

Adam and Monica