Back in Karatu

It feels like coming home to return here. It was wonderful to see Jolene, the country director, and the staff again and be greeted as familiar friends. It is so beautiful here. It is warm, sunny and breezy; perfect Minnesota days. There has been rain so it is green, unlike last year. The rolling hills and mountains are a wonderful contrast of red and green. Some of the trees are blooming, and of course the birds are amazing.

We plunged right into our project. We had sent the questions we wanted to ask in the villages and Jolene and Innocent had organized them and made some changes. So we started from there, and had it translated by a very talented young woman, Rehema. Her English is excellent and she could quickly translate the documents. She happened to walk into Jolene’s office the week before we arrived looking for work, which was so fortunate for us.

We were eight in the Toyota Land Cruiser going to Endobash where we spent the week in the guest house there. We visited a different village each day, and each village was different.

When you visit a village you sign in with the village officer. We were able to interview these men, several farmers, traditional birth attendants, young single mothers in the Survive and Thrive Groups and some shopkeepers. We saw several schools and visited the wells or pumps. The village people were, as last year, happy to see us and most generous to spend an hour with us answering detailed questions about agriculture, transportation, water issues, family, work and other aspects of village life. Our days were long, but very interesting.

Some of the issues that stand out: schools are generally overcrowded and understaffed and resourced. One primary school we visited has 800 students and 8 teachers. They use benches with attached tables for desks, which is common here but the children were so crowded that I don’t know how they could write. Still there were not enough desks for the 118 students in the room so many had to stand at the back of the room. In one village a TZ NGO had planned to build two classrooms. But the village chairman was very effective and organized village labor so they were able to get three rooms for the cost of two.

In talking with one of the farmers who had good English, he asked how big farms were in America. When I told him several hundred hectares, he said “That is not a farm, that is a plantation!” Some farmers here are lucky enough to be able to plow with bulls, but once the crops are up the fields are full of men and women with hoes working very hard.

The last village we visited was very isolated. They were about 6 kilometers off the road. The village road was clearly washed over during the rains. Several stretches were just rock jumbles. We were one kilometer from the meeting site when the road ended in a drop off into a dry gully. Often the car can drive down into these and up the other side, but it was so steep and deep that we could not cross. So we walked the rest of the way. But this means the village is cut off now, even when it is not raining. How do they get a pregnant woman to a clinic? The houses here were very spread out, so it seemed very sparsely populated. The water source, a spring, was about 3 kilometers from the site of the office and the only one for the whole widespread village. Life there is clearly very hard. Yet this is the place we saw many white butterflies flitting among the flowering shrubs and trees.

We had a new cultural experience. Rick got up Monday morning to find a goat hanging from the tree outside our room in the courtyard of our guesthouse. They proceeded to skin and slaughter it right there. Then on Wednesday, they did it again. Our tree had a crook in the branch at just the right place, I guess.

Another interesting experience: we stopped at a Catholic mission in one village. There were women sitting under trees in groups waiting to have petitions heard. We walked over to one group of about 12 to interview them. Soon, the women were migrating from every direction; I suppose to see what was going on. Soon we had over 60 women and even some men in our group. Some were very outspoken in answer to our questions and clearly wanted to be heard.

We also enjoyed some stimulating after hours discussion with staff about various issues in the country and the challenges they face.

This week we are in the office translating Rehema’s notes, compiling the information to see what we know. Then, it will be out to the field again.

Returning to Tanzania

On January 11th we are leaving again for Africa and returning to the US March 23rd. We are excited about the trip and the goals we have set for ourselves.

The organization is WellShare International, formerly known as Minnesota International Health Volunteers. In Tanzania they focus on the health of mothers and their children. Maternal health has long been given poor attention in the developing world, with most organizations concerned about the children. Of course, if there isn’t a mother to care for them, the health of the kids may be in jeopardy.

A part of WellShare’s effort is developing Survive and Thrive Groups (STGs). Here, young mothers learn more about taking care of themselves throughout their pregnancy and after delivery, along with the health of their child. These groups are led by traditional birth attendants (TBAs) who receive education to improve their skills from WellShare.

Our last trip focused on the effort to develop income-generation projects for the STGs, so these women have the financial resources to keep themselves and their child healthy. In addition, time and again across the developing world, and perhaps worldwide, it has been shown that women spend their income wisely on the family and its well being, rather than entertainment, alcohol, and so on.

For several months we have been doing research on what strategies work in assisting women to earn income. This included meeting with several NGOs (non-governmental organizations) here and in CA. It has been a fascinating process and we (hopefully) have learned a great deal about what works and how it might be sustainable. We also looked at specific issues such as water sourcing, clean water and lighting to determine if there might be income opportunities related to them.

During the first month we will meet with various organizations providing services in Tanzania, including agriculture agents and micro-finance projects. We expect to spend a great deal of time in villages, trying to understand as best we can how they function, how their economy works. We developed an extensive questionnaire which WellShare’s staff in Tanzania has been translating. The staff is wonderful, and we know we will learn a lot from spending time with them, along with the village visits.

In mid-February we will take a week or so off for a trip to Kenya. We will be meeting with KickStart, the organization Aaron worked for as an intern and then after graduation from his MBA program. KickStart has a very successful model of selling appropriate technology products, such as irrigation pumps, that have transformed lives as people go from subsistence to profit-making farming. We also expect to meet with an NGO in western Kenya that specializes in helping women develop enterprises in remote villages.

There will be periodic updates to this blog about what we are learning and doing. And, we are always happy to hear from you if you have the notion to send us an email.