Four weeks left

We are half way through our stay and time is flying by. There are several projects to be finished and in some ways it feels we should be here several more months, but we hope to be back next year to continue our work.

This past week was spent in the field in an area called Mang’ola. The landscape is very different there. The elevation is lower, perhaps 4,000 feet instead of the 5,000 feet we are used to here in Karatu. In Mang’ola the temperature is warmer and the rainfall less. There is a large spring nearby. The water is pumped up to reservoirs, and then allowed to be diverted to different areas as irrigation water. This gives the contrast of scrub plants surviving in dry areas, next to lush irrigated fields of corn and red onions. The latter are shipped all over Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and other countries.

Mang’ola is smaller than Karatu town, and challenging to reach because of the road leading to it. There is no electrical service, although a few of the businesses use small solar panels to power a few fluorescent lights. Most use kerosene lamps. The nights were spectacular because the streets are so dark so the visible stars are so numerous and bright. The guest house we stayed in had all the wiring, switches and outlets necessary, even a TV satellite dish. However, it is all useless because the power grid doesn’t include the town.

As with so many experiences, being on location has much more impact than reading about what life is like there. We continue to be in awe of what MIHV has accomplished in just two years. As we drive through remote areas, people eagerly greet us because the staff has made such a strong investment in building relationships and training. Add the factor that we two white people are in the car along with staff, and we sometimes felt like we were celebrities in a 4th of July parade in America, with kids running out to wave and yell friendly greetings.

The challenges to improving the health of mothers and children under five are daunting. For example, in one village about 23 kilometers/14 miles from Mang’ola, an hour’s drive, we found a young mother who had been bitten by a poisonous snake the day before. She went to a traditional healer to get medicine, who didn’t have the right one. The woman was told not to go to the hospital in Mang’ola because they would simply cut off her leg. When we arrived she wasn’t doing well. The staff convinced her that the hospital wouldn’t cut off her leg. While two staff people were meeting with other village members, our driver took the woman to the hospital, got the right medications and brought her back, leg intact.

We were told about another incident when complications developed for a woman in labor. The plan was for her to deliver in the village with a traditional birth attendant, but it became apparent she needed to be taken to a hospital. There was no vehicle available, so she was carried on the backs of village members six hours throughout the night. The result happily was a successful, healthy birth.

MIHV seems very skilled in dealing with the wide range of education found in the villages. In one training session, the participants ranged from an individual with no formal education to one who spoke eight languages, including very good English.

The focus of this trip was training specific village members on why and how to collect data on pregnancies, illnesses, births and deaths. Data can be a powerful tool, helping to identify the causes of health problems that can lead to a course of action. The government is keenly interested, but doesn’t have all the necessary resources, so MIHV in cooperation with the district authorities is helping. In one case the data they collected was turned over to the Karatu District Medical Office. They described the problem and presented the supporting data to a local business who pledged to fund a program to help solve it.

The people we met fascinated us. The afore-mentioned man who spoke eight languages was an engaging conversationalist. Tanzania has at least 130 different tribes, and such individuals as this gentleman have learned to converse in a surprising number of the traditional languages. As we said in a previous blog entry, given our poor performance in Swahili and previous language efforts, it is humbling. We’ll have more to say about education here in a future blog update.

We also met a 75 year old shaman/traditional healer, dressed in her tribe’s traditional clothing. Although she spoke no English, she was eager to learn a few phrases.

The week also helped reinforce the need to be patient and take things as they come. In the town and the various villages we visited there is no electricity. The roads are difficult, and in some areas will be impassable during the rainy season. Fortunately, mobile phones have revolutionized communications because there are almost no land lines.

Even with the mobile phones, scheduling these sessions is extremely difficult. Because of the roads it is a little difficult to know when we will arrive. Participants have the demands of family, farms and other responsibilities. So, something that is planned to start at 9:00AM may not begin until 11:30. Emergencies such as the snake-bite incident can pull us away from what has been planned.

In our last blog entry we mentioned a Valentine’s luncheon put together by MIHV for leading women in Karatu. The goal was to listen to their views on what should be done to help women and children in the district build income-generating activities. It was a wonderful success, with most pledging money, training and other support and deciding to meet monthly to make solving the problems an ongoing effort. It is impressive to see how government, organizations like MIHV and community members are working together.

This next week we will be in the office. We have developed some training materials for Excel and will be using them in sessions with the staff, along with members of another non-governmental organization. We will also continue working on a marketing training program for staff so they can train the village women.

We hope all is well with all of you.