Day 18 in Arusha! Well not even all of it in Arusha. We spent the week in Longido, and boy do I want to get back to Arusha! I had some mild frustrations with the week, beginning with the lack of urgency in getting things done. We were warned of the struggles to get things done on 'African time', but nothing was quite like the reality of it. Everyday I found myself asking, 'Whats going on'? "What are we doing/" Who are we waiting for?' several times. And I could never get a straight answer. I kept thinking we werent' getting anything done.
We began at 6am on Tuesday with the chicken vaccinations. Turns out, everyone in the village we went to had let the chickens out already. We just skipped to breakfast. Then we were scheduled to follow up with farmers who had their trainings several weeks ago, to see their progress. What a dud. It seemed everyone had interpreted to their own advantage the material that GSC had taught them. No one had built a single raised bed, no one had made compost, a nursery and had just planted their seeds about 2 inches apart from each other. No one understood the advantages of this to produce a higher yield, etc. And most discouraging, no one had kept their booklets with the important information GSC had distributed. However, they were kind of understanding that we pressed them about it. And apparently, as an mzungu holding a form and asking a lot of questions they seemed to believe we knew what we were talking about.
The next morning it was again on to vaccinating chickens but at least I was able to get in on the action! I had my gloves, and was able to put the drops into the chicken's eyes, no I didnt have to touch them. Yuck, everyone who knows me well knows my serious avian phobia, so this was quite a feat for me!! Tuesday night we rectified that whole issue with the movie with the Maasai, and were able to get the projector working. Mostly children came over the 'cinema', some women and only one man. He didn't really look interested. It was most interesting to see their reactions to the film because it was not what anyone had expected. The documentary was made in Senegal, and some of the women had very pronounced cheekbones and the males in the film were strong and muscular. There were so many giggles and talking back to the screen during the film. So what was so funny? Apparently, some of the young Maasai women were making fun of how large the men were, and said the faces of the women looked 'surprised' because they were different. It was interesting to their their views on other Africans, and unfortunately they interpreted this as the 'face' of HIV AIDS. One of our interns tried to explain that their physical features had nothing to do with their HIV status, which cannot be seen on anyones' exterior. I'm not sure how well they retained this, as everyone pretty much dispersed when the projector turned off.
Wednesday, it was again with the chickens. I'm becoming less and less interested with the stupid chickens and more curious about how people live. For instance, we visited a boarding school which happened to have a chicken coop out back. As we vaccinated, we saw one of the little boys who was much much darker than the others and his face was covered in acne-like bumps. But he could not have been more than 9 years old. One of our project coordinators explained that his skin is a strong symptom of a sexually transmitted infection, or a combination of syphilis and gonorrhea. I was shocked that a child this young could have already displayed signs of an STI, and my colleague said this could have been transmitted through touching blood or other fluids from an infected person. It sounded bad enough to be in a boarding school in the middle of nowhere, Tanzania (which never have good conditions) nonetheless with a physical reaction to an STI. It was a very clear call to the urgency of sexually transmitted disease in the country.
That afternoon we did a double dig bed demonstration and I taught a class on composting. I didn't have to do much work digging the beds, as there were some high school kids who generously did much of the work. And then walked right up to me and asked me for my email. No, I lied, I dont have one. In America, no one has email. Sike, creepers! We then prepared a tarp to cover someone's hafir (a huge hole in the ground to save rainwater in the rainy season for gardening).
Thursday we began the day again with chicken vaccinations, and did a whopping 130-something. We were slated to build a hafir that afternoon, about 8x1 meter and 1 1/2 meters deep. This time, we did most of the digging. The instructions to dig were very clear, but not work for 1 person to do herself, ahem themselves. In these societies, its very clear that the mama will be the one doing this type of work.
Besides these activities, it was very easy for me to feel useless. More frustrating was everyone's reference to my contributions here with GSC as if I were some kind of useless angelic being--who just because I'm too chicken to vaccinate chickens, however will graciously compensate in any other way I can help, will discredit anything I will contribute to the program. Anyone who knows how hard I fought to get this program will know I dont deserve to have this kind of reputation. Everytime I ask a question, I will ensure that I get a clear answer, and I wont tolerate being treated like an imbecile when I have a concern. Perhaps being the only girl, with no farming or camping or outdoor experience makes me some kind of idiot, but it wont be long before that gets cleared up.
After this grueling week, I was soooooo happy to be back to my comforts in Arusha--my queen sized bed at my homestay and my own room!! My mama wasn't home unfortunately, so I made the schelp to town to buy a cell phone. Now anyone with money to make international calls can call me!! On my way back 3 little girls on my street were skipping rope, and invited me (via "mzungu girl come jump"). So I jumped rope! I thought some kids would be afraid of me, but I made some friends I guess! I jumped for about 3 minutes and was so out of breath, and incredibly embarrassed that passersby were now stopping to see a non-Tanzanian skipping rope so I stopped. Tomorrow is safari day!!!
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