Well, tomorrow Monica and I spend our last day in the Rungwe district (tear, from her not me- real men never cry). In all honestly, it will be a very tough dayas we are having one last village meeting with Ilima and then spending the rest of the afternoon with some of our closest friends. In case you are just tuning in now, here is a little bit of what we have done..
Well, almost two months has passed since our arrival in Dar,
And after a few rough beginnings we have come pretty far,
Adam's brief hospital visit that gave us quite a scare,
And overpaying each time when asked for bus fare,
We have come to consider Tukuyu a quite comfortable place,
Even constantly hearing “mzungo”, iterally meaning “white face”,
Our daily stops for at “The Lodge” for mishaki and chips,
The only place in the region that does not seem to beg us for tips,
The toilets are holes and the buses quite filled,
So when we refuse to move over, they are never quite thrilled,
All the time spent in Ilima speaking with farmers and helping birds,
They may not understand English but they know we are nerds,
Monica ordering a bird book here instead of listening to me,
Because when it comes to Tanzania, there is no guarantee,
Sampling Dodoma's vino as it was all we could find,
After a night with alter wine you are lucky you're not blind
It has been an incredible experience, packed with laughs,memories and smiles
We kinda promised we would be back, got any more aeroplan miles?
Thank you to all who made this experience possible. We are headed to Ruaha National Park and then Zanzibar to see a little more of the country before going home..
Cheers,
Adam and Monica
Friday, July 16, 2010
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Vaccine Time
Most birds are majestic creatures which gracefully glide across the sky and are capable of focusing so intently on the land below that is appears they are gazing into the soul of Mother Nature.
A chicken trying to avoid capture so it can receive an essential vaccination to prevent its death is not as pleasant a sight. In fact, if you are the big tall, slow white guy, who can barely string 3 sentences of the local language together, trying to catch said chicken for 5-10 minutes, you can almost sense Charles Darwin turning over in his grave. To be fair, we had instructed our teaching group to tell their students to KEEP YOUR CHICKENS INSIDE, but we also said a lot of other things that day, they were bound to forget something. Needless to say, we did not vaccinate a lot of chickens on the first day.
However, things picked up quite quickly. We have now vaccinated over 600 chickens between the 55 farmers we are working with and are going back tomorrow to finish with the last few houses. Interestingly enough, there has been quite a dramatic increase in the number of birds per farm especially considering we surveyed all of these people less than a month ago. I like to think that they have just been diligently following our advice and that this rapid progress is simply an indication of our surreal poultry education methods rather than the more likely explanation of a suspect addition of birds from their neighbours...
Joking aside, there has been some notable improvements in poultry husbandry within the village. It was a very proud moment when we saw our vaccinator-teacher-student system being put to work in the past few days as Monica and I were able to simply observe the process instead of feeling inclined to assist directly with the vaccinations. I believe that the group of people we have selected is a responsible and motivated team who will be able to continue on with their duties during the months that we will not be here. We have almost now finished our education materials which will be left with each one of these people allowing for better communication between all parties throughout the year as well as some built in mechanisms of evaluation for future project work.
A chicken trying to avoid capture so it can receive an essential vaccination to prevent its death is not as pleasant a sight. In fact, if you are the big tall, slow white guy, who can barely string 3 sentences of the local language together, trying to catch said chicken for 5-10 minutes, you can almost sense Charles Darwin turning over in his grave. To be fair, we had instructed our teaching group to tell their students to KEEP YOUR CHICKENS INSIDE, but we also said a lot of other things that day, they were bound to forget something. Needless to say, we did not vaccinate a lot of chickens on the first day.
However, things picked up quite quickly. We have now vaccinated over 600 chickens between the 55 farmers we are working with and are going back tomorrow to finish with the last few houses. Interestingly enough, there has been quite a dramatic increase in the number of birds per farm especially considering we surveyed all of these people less than a month ago. I like to think that they have just been diligently following our advice and that this rapid progress is simply an indication of our surreal poultry education methods rather than the more likely explanation of a suspect addition of birds from their neighbours...
Joking aside, there has been some notable improvements in poultry husbandry within the village. It was a very proud moment when we saw our vaccinator-teacher-student system being put to work in the past few days as Monica and I were able to simply observe the process instead of feeling inclined to assist directly with the vaccinations. I believe that the group of people we have selected is a responsible and motivated team who will be able to continue on with their duties during the months that we will not be here. We have almost now finished our education materials which will be left with each one of these people allowing for better communication between all parties throughout the year as well as some built in mechanisms of evaluation for future project work.
Mt Rungwe and the Food
For our last full weekend in the Rungwe district, Monica and I played tourist and arranged some adventures through a local company to a few of the more scenic locations in the area. Our most exhausting expedition was to climb Mt. Rungwe this past Sunday. Monica will be climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro after our work here is done, so we figured this might be a good, inexpensive warm up for her.
The climb itself took about 8-9 hours round trip and was quite a tiring affair. The mountain is home to quite a number of animals with our favourites being the monkeys who, I believe, rather enjoyed seeing us struggle as they carelessly jumped from branch to branch. Another minor set back was that the guide basically had no idea where we were for the first 2 hours of the trip. I guess during the wet season there can be so much growth that it covers the path..or so they told us. Anyway, we managed to make it down with only a few scrapes and bruises meaning that I am about 2 weeks away from keeping my number of trips to the regional hospital to 1.
Now while Monica may take joy in paying copious amounts of money to climb a big rock, my energy is usually spent trying to figure out the quickest, cheapest, and most delicious path to acquire more energy. I would be lying to all our devoted blog followers (which by my last tally was just Monica) if I said that I was not concerned about the quantity and quality of food available during my time here. Well friends, you will be happy to know that Tanzania is home to some of the tastiest and more affordable meals I have ever had. As our daily routine began to evolve in the past month, it was clear that a stop at “The Lodge” was to be included. The menu is pretty straight forward as our options are rice and meat or chips and meat but what they don't tell you in the guide books is that cheap hot sauce is available everywhere and served with every meal. This has been my saving grace. Throw in the fact that Monica tends to only eat ½ a plate of food and I have really struck gold.
Another art we have perfected is the bus order. We spent quite a bit of time in the morning waiting for our buses to fill up which means we are the ideal customers for the various stand owners to approach. Bananas, doughnuts, ground nuts, as well as about 15 different styles of clothing with the word Obama printed on them, are all within arm's reach. And to think, in North America I was driving up to the window to purchase food like a sucker. We are definitely well taken care of in Tukuyu and this sort of in your face hospitality is something ,I for one, will sorely miss.
The climb itself took about 8-9 hours round trip and was quite a tiring affair. The mountain is home to quite a number of animals with our favourites being the monkeys who, I believe, rather enjoyed seeing us struggle as they carelessly jumped from branch to branch. Another minor set back was that the guide basically had no idea where we were for the first 2 hours of the trip. I guess during the wet season there can be so much growth that it covers the path..or so they told us. Anyway, we managed to make it down with only a few scrapes and bruises meaning that I am about 2 weeks away from keeping my number of trips to the regional hospital to 1.
Now while Monica may take joy in paying copious amounts of money to climb a big rock, my energy is usually spent trying to figure out the quickest, cheapest, and most delicious path to acquire more energy. I would be lying to all our devoted blog followers (which by my last tally was just Monica) if I said that I was not concerned about the quantity and quality of food available during my time here. Well friends, you will be happy to know that Tanzania is home to some of the tastiest and more affordable meals I have ever had. As our daily routine began to evolve in the past month, it was clear that a stop at “The Lodge” was to be included. The menu is pretty straight forward as our options are rice and meat or chips and meat but what they don't tell you in the guide books is that cheap hot sauce is available everywhere and served with every meal. This has been my saving grace. Throw in the fact that Monica tends to only eat ½ a plate of food and I have really struck gold.
Another art we have perfected is the bus order. We spent quite a bit of time in the morning waiting for our buses to fill up which means we are the ideal customers for the various stand owners to approach. Bananas, doughnuts, ground nuts, as well as about 15 different styles of clothing with the word Obama printed on them, are all within arm's reach. And to think, in North America I was driving up to the window to purchase food like a sucker. We are definitely well taken care of in Tukuyu and this sort of in your face hospitality is something ,I for one, will sorely miss.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Adam and Monica go to school
Turns out being a secondary school teacher is a bit harder than I gave it credit for the first time around...
Monica and I have spent some time at Ilima Secondary School the past few weeks teaching Form 1 and 2 students basic poultry husbandry. Armed with little prior knowledge regarding the subject and limited teaching experience, we were thrust in front of a class of about 75 students each. Throw in a Swahili vocabulary comparable to that of the species we are teaching about and it was an interesting experience to put it politely. The kids only begin to learn English in secondary school in Tanzania so there was quite a bit repetition throughout the 90 minute sessions.
It would be fair to say that Monica and I have pretty opposite teachings styles so while she was preparing notes and going through concepts for the following day, I basically wrote the word “kuku” a bunch of times on a piece of paper and figured that the material would come back to me when needed- not always the best approach.
Just like in any school, you have the keeners, the “sleepers”, the kids who could care less about what you are talking about, and a whole bunch of other different types of students. It was a nice experience to get to share some info we have learned and in all honesty, we had lots of fun. There is a poultry building at the school that is currently under construction so the hope is that through these sessions the students and staff would be better prepared for when it becomes operational..
I am starting to think we are becoming the best customers of the local stationary stores as the school required copies of lecture “notes” for the students. Three hundred copies later we were on our way and we hope that by this time next year some of those concepts will be put into practice.
This week is our last in Ilima and we are vaccinating chickens. Should make for some interesting stories!
Cheers,
Adam and Monica
Monica and I have spent some time at Ilima Secondary School the past few weeks teaching Form 1 and 2 students basic poultry husbandry. Armed with little prior knowledge regarding the subject and limited teaching experience, we were thrust in front of a class of about 75 students each. Throw in a Swahili vocabulary comparable to that of the species we are teaching about and it was an interesting experience to put it politely. The kids only begin to learn English in secondary school in Tanzania so there was quite a bit repetition throughout the 90 minute sessions.
It would be fair to say that Monica and I have pretty opposite teachings styles so while she was preparing notes and going through concepts for the following day, I basically wrote the word “kuku” a bunch of times on a piece of paper and figured that the material would come back to me when needed- not always the best approach.
Just like in any school, you have the keeners, the “sleepers”, the kids who could care less about what you are talking about, and a whole bunch of other different types of students. It was a nice experience to get to share some info we have learned and in all honesty, we had lots of fun. There is a poultry building at the school that is currently under construction so the hope is that through these sessions the students and staff would be better prepared for when it becomes operational..
I am starting to think we are becoming the best customers of the local stationary stores as the school required copies of lecture “notes” for the students. Three hundred copies later we were on our way and we hope that by this time next year some of those concepts will be put into practice.
This week is our last in Ilima and we are vaccinating chickens. Should make for some interesting stories!
Cheers,
Adam and Monica
Monday, July 5, 2010
The Sights of the Southern Highlands
And we're back..
The Southern Highlands of Tanzania are a gorgeous collection of waterfalls, mountains and even some beaches, so taking the advice of a everyone we have met, Monica and I have spent our weekends checking out some of the scenery.
This weekend our trip was to Matema Beach, located on Lake Nyasa. After finishing up a village training session on Friday, we took a short bus ride to Kyela before trying to find transport to Matema.
Now, there are many different ways to get to the beach: bus, car, bike, but sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind and pile on a motorcycle and hope you get there in one piece. Almost instantly an otherwise long and bumpy drive (there were roads in better condition during the height of the Roman Empire) turned into an off-road adventure. Flooded roads, more turned over vehicles and a lack of helmets all contributed to the experience. We arrived in record time and with another mode of transportation checked off in our “100 Ways to See Tanzania” book that Monica and I will eventually get to writing.
The weekend was spent swimming, relaxing on the beach, and playing some football. The beach itself is surrounded by mountains, making it one of the most unique and beautiful places we have seen thus far. The lake itself is almost home to numerous Cichlids species which made for some excellent snorkelling. Monica fell victim to the waves and now gets to take home a nice bruise courtesy of one of the many sharp rocks in the shallow water.
Our ride home was just as adventurous as one of our motorcycles broke down on the way to pick us up so Monica and I got to squeeze in on one bike for about half of the trip. It would be advised that VWB limit the size of future program participants as travelling with anyone over 6 feet tall + the gear he needs for a little weekend trip, makes him a very awkward travelling partner when squished on single bike.
This week will be filled with some teaching at Ilima Secondary School as well as some additional training sessions with our “teacher” groups of farmers..Should be a good one.
Cheers,
Adam and Monica
The Southern Highlands of Tanzania are a gorgeous collection of waterfalls, mountains and even some beaches, so taking the advice of a everyone we have met, Monica and I have spent our weekends checking out some of the scenery.
This weekend our trip was to Matema Beach, located on Lake Nyasa. After finishing up a village training session on Friday, we took a short bus ride to Kyela before trying to find transport to Matema.
Now, there are many different ways to get to the beach: bus, car, bike, but sometimes you just have to throw caution to the wind and pile on a motorcycle and hope you get there in one piece. Almost instantly an otherwise long and bumpy drive (there were roads in better condition during the height of the Roman Empire) turned into an off-road adventure. Flooded roads, more turned over vehicles and a lack of helmets all contributed to the experience. We arrived in record time and with another mode of transportation checked off in our “100 Ways to See Tanzania” book that Monica and I will eventually get to writing.
The weekend was spent swimming, relaxing on the beach, and playing some football. The beach itself is surrounded by mountains, making it one of the most unique and beautiful places we have seen thus far. The lake itself is almost home to numerous Cichlids species which made for some excellent snorkelling. Monica fell victim to the waves and now gets to take home a nice bruise courtesy of one of the many sharp rocks in the shallow water.
Our ride home was just as adventurous as one of our motorcycles broke down on the way to pick us up so Monica and I got to squeeze in on one bike for about half of the trip. It would be advised that VWB limit the size of future program participants as travelling with anyone over 6 feet tall + the gear he needs for a little weekend trip, makes him a very awkward travelling partner when squished on single bike.
This week will be filled with some teaching at Ilima Secondary School as well as some additional training sessions with our “teacher” groups of farmers..Should be a good one.
Cheers,
Adam and Monica
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Out and About in Ilima
So, the last little bit we have a been quite busy. We have now finished surveying the farmers and have selected our “working groups”. A bit of recap, in the past the project has functioned to provide farmers in Ilima with Rhode Island Reds, a breed of chicken that they had hoped would bring in some genetic diversity and lead to healthier flocks. Unfortunately, many of theses birds (as well as lots of local chickens) succumb to disease and predators. Since we have been here, we have started working on a new initiative which involves developing a model to supply farmers with access to vaccines and education on how to care for their birds. The “teachers” and “vaccinators” in this model are actually local farmers which have demonstrated that they already know how to care for their animals and are willing to share that information with their neighbours. One of our biggest challenges is showing farmers how profitable chickens can be since here, they are not considered as a viable source of income. Throughout the next couple of weeks, we are going to try to reinforce that like their other species of livestock, chickens need some love too haha.
The second part of our project has been working with the Ilima Secondary School. Tomorrow, Monica and I begin teaching high school students about how to care and raise healthy birds. This means that Monica and I are now spending most of today learning how to care and raise healthy birds. It should definitely be an interesting experience as we will be teaching for roughly 5 hours to 4 classes, individually. Monica just loves public speaking and getting in front of that many people (50 at a time) to talk is something she is looking forward too especially considering she is an expert Swahili.
On the lighter side of things, I decided it was finally time to trim my beard if I hope any of our pictures will be included in further VWB marketing materials. Let's just say the hairy cave man look has never been the best picture to attract donations and awareness. I can't remember the last time in Canada a haircut costs 50 cents.
We also went to buy vaccines today and discovered that the pharmacies have been told to keep them frozen, which according to all the information we brought is a big no-no. It is one of those situations where you can't just go into the place and saying they are doing things wrong. If we hope to educate some of the people here we are finding it is much better to get to know the situation and why they do things a certain way.
Finally, there is a big conference in town on water resource management. There are lots of important ministers and other individuals present and given the amount of media around, it is quite safe to say the two kids from Canada are no longer the biggest attraction. Plus, we are hoping we may be able to tag along with them on their way back to Lake Nyasa on Friday which we are told has a beach worth visiting...
Our time in Tanzania is almost at the end. It is very hard to believe we have only about 3 weeks before we leave Tukuyu. Definitely lots to do in the meantime so we will be sure to keep you filled in on how it goes...
Cheers,
Adam and Monica
The second part of our project has been working with the Ilima Secondary School. Tomorrow, Monica and I begin teaching high school students about how to care and raise healthy birds. This means that Monica and I are now spending most of today learning how to care and raise healthy birds. It should definitely be an interesting experience as we will be teaching for roughly 5 hours to 4 classes, individually. Monica just loves public speaking and getting in front of that many people (50 at a time) to talk is something she is looking forward too especially considering she is an expert Swahili.
On the lighter side of things, I decided it was finally time to trim my beard if I hope any of our pictures will be included in further VWB marketing materials. Let's just say the hairy cave man look has never been the best picture to attract donations and awareness. I can't remember the last time in Canada a haircut costs 50 cents.
We also went to buy vaccines today and discovered that the pharmacies have been told to keep them frozen, which according to all the information we brought is a big no-no. It is one of those situations where you can't just go into the place and saying they are doing things wrong. If we hope to educate some of the people here we are finding it is much better to get to know the situation and why they do things a certain way.
Finally, there is a big conference in town on water resource management. There are lots of important ministers and other individuals present and given the amount of media around, it is quite safe to say the two kids from Canada are no longer the biggest attraction. Plus, we are hoping we may be able to tag along with them on their way back to Lake Nyasa on Friday which we are told has a beach worth visiting...
Our time in Tanzania is almost at the end. It is very hard to believe we have only about 3 weeks before we leave Tukuyu. Definitely lots to do in the meantime so we will be sure to keep you filled in on how it goes...
Cheers,
Adam and Monica
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
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
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
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