Everyday Life

Since Easter, life has largely been jogging along in a routine of school, orphanage, and community.  Standard 4 and 7 students are preparing for National Exams and are being ‘tested’ within an inch of themselves!  The pressure is particularly on for Standard 7 as their results will decide their entry to secondary school and in Tanzania, where only 25% of children get a secondary education this is really important.  The present Standard 7 is the first one to go through St. Ignatius’ but they seem to be excelling and have the promise of a brand new Jesuit High School waiting for them if they pass.  It is incredible to witness the hard work of the staff and students – school days from 7:30am–4pm and Saturdays from 7:30–1pm, then there is the homework, which is almost always done...  So different from home! 

I have to say though, I feel really sorry for them with all the constant testing and cramming – not that they seem to mind!  I’ve made a point of taking word searches, games and puzzles for my standard 4s this week though.  The excitement this causes is unbelievable and I’m constantly having kids accost me with finished puzzles, begging for more... 

Lessons at the orphanage have benefitted from the arrival of ‘dress up dolls’ (courtesy of mum) and glossy ‘I Wonder Why?’ type books (courtesy of Uncle Frank).  These have provided opportunities to play (the dolls) but to then introduce the character and describe her outfit in English and to do some basic science complete with funny facts.

We’ve met a lot of very interesting people over the last few weeks.  A friend of ours took us to dinner with her dad who is an MP (he’s held various ministerial positions in the past but is now a back-bencher).  He offered to take us to parliament and sent his driver to collect us after school for the evening session.  They were debating a bill about agriculture of which we understood little except for bits about honey, eggs & foodie type words we’ve learned!  It was interesting to see it in action though – the procedures were incredibly like the House of Commons – right down to the mace.  The sessions are filmed and there was one acutely embarrassing moment  when we became aware of a close up of our white legs beaming out of the big screens – followed swiftly by not-too-well-stifled giggling an numerous  PMs turning round to gaze at us in the balcony!      

In the community, May seems to be the month of birthdays and we started with Erin’s – her celebration at community night was something to behold, with both cake and drink being danced round on heads!  I’m looking forward to the rest of the birthdays and the excuse to bake more cake...

The Little Things

I’ve been really struck over the last couple of weeks at how little, unexpected things can bring such joy.  Mum has been sending me bits and pieces to use with the kids.  One of these was ‘Sparkle World’ – an activity magazine for children.  I took it to the orphanage and the kids’ eyes nearly popped out of their heads.  I would never have anticipated the excitement and pleasure it could give – we’ve spent hours doing puzzles, playing games, sticking stickers and reading stories.  £2:45 incredibly well spent!  There are no gender issues either, the boys have loved it every bit as much as the girls...

The bike rides to and from the orphanage have become one of my favourite parts of the week.  You see so much of life going on along the roads – women & men labouring hard to widen the road, children playing in the new ditches, students coming from school and practicing their English greetings (usually “good morning” even at 6pm).   I particularly love the part of the route through the bush – I’m passing at a time when the Masai pastoralists are driving their animals home, so I often have to give way for the cows and goats which saunter across my path.  There are also women making their way home with their loads on their heads or farming their small plots.  The whole journey is spent exchanging greetings most often “salama” (peace). 

When I arrive at the orphanage, there are always a couple of kids at the gate – not waiting for me as much as for my bike, which is promptly commandeered and ridden round the enclosure with numerous kids aboard.  Even the older girls love their turn.   Annunciata likes to accompany me part of the way home – she’s trying to get me to perch behind her, which I just can’t master, so I end up having to peddle with her behind, resulting in the two of us veering at bizarre angles across the road!   

A couple of weeks ago one of these jaunts led to an unfortunate meeting with a thorn bush and by the time I got to the tarmaced  road, my back tyre was completely flat.  Luckily there was a fundi right at the side of the road.  (Fundis are wonderful menders-of-all-things.  Nothing is ever thrown out here – there’s always a handy fundi to fix the seemingly unsalvageable).  So, I ended up perched on a log at the side of the road while the fundi fixed my puncture, rapidly becoming a specimen of extreme interest for the local children.  I had foam animal stickers with me which they were really excited to put on their clothes.  After we’d swapped names, I’d taught them the animals in English and they’d taught me them in Kiswahili, I was running out of ideas so we ended up singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” – much to the amusement of the fundis and the gathering adults.  The next week as I went past, a small crowd gathered clapping & waving as I cycled past puncture free! 

These little things, the unexpected connections and the easy fun will stay with me as much as the safaris and the beaches I am sure.

Land of Contrasts

The longer I’m here, the more I become aware of the many layers and contrasts of life in Tanzania.  The greatest joy of being here is the emerging relationships and friendships and the fun and sharing arising from these. 

A couple of weeks ago Mira was really ill and the care, concern and practical help offered to her and us as she struggled to get a diagnosis and treatment was remarkable.  At the same time, the reality of inadequate health provision was brought home.  Mira was eventually admitted to a private clinic.  ‘Private’ in this instance was misleading – although she had a private room it was extremely basic and the actual medical treatment available was limited.  For a ‘real’ hospital you need to make the 7 hour journey to Dar Es Salaam.  They diagnosed her with Typhoid and Malaria (as they apparently do with almost everyone, the theory being that these are likely culprits for most symptoms, so treat for them and hope for the best). 

Almost as soon as she was admitted people started to visit from the Cheshire home where she works.  They came bearing freshly baked bread, juice and fruit.  We soon realised that you don’t get and food or drink in hospital here – friends and relatives provide.  Even Consolatha, a delightful 13 year old from school appeared at our house, helped me make soup and raided my craft pack to head up the production of get well cards. 

The rallying round didn’t seem enough though when we arrived in the evening to find Mira had accidently pulled out her drip, was covered in blood and rehydration fluids and was unable to get the attention of a nurse.  Plus of course, you’re very aware that even this standard of care is beyond most people who have to take their chances at the over-crowded government clinics, or simply go without.

Another eye opener was while playing a ‘Snakes & Ladders’ type game with the kids at the orphanage.  The game encourages the practice of English by giving a topic to talk about on each square.  One of the topics was ‘family’ which I was nervous about but thought we’d stick to siblings.  It turned out that a number of the kids also talked about their parents though.  When I asked the sisters about this later, they explained that lots of the children do have one or both parents but they can’t afford the HIV drugs, so they send them to the orphanage where they know they’ll be given the anti-retrovirals and diet they need.

The contrasts were even more evident last weekend when a now fully recovered Mira, Erin & I enjoyed a fabulous couple of days at Kipepeo beach just south of Dar Es Salaam.  Being surrounded by white tourists and travelling types felt a bit strange at first, but the beautiful beach, warm Indian ocean, good food and mojitos saw off any scruples pretty fast! 

The trip came about as two of the Jesuits were going to Dar to collect a new school bus and we went along for the ride – a ride that was on a bus run by a Muslim company and as it was Friday, we were subjected to 2 hours of loud Arabic chanting & prayers over the radio!  It turned out the ‘new’ school bus is a 1989 Japanese model which they still had to pay £15000 import duty on. (The widespread corruption is incredibly frustrating.  I first encountered it when collecting a parcel for Erin from the post office.  Despite the duty slip saying the equivalent of about 60p was owing, it was not released until I’d handed over £12).  Even after the port officials had been satisfied, we were stopped on the journey home by police who accused us of being a commercial vehicle travelling illegally at night.  The paperwork showing purchase that day did little to persuade them otherwise and they spent an hour trying to extract a bribe.  Eventually they came on the bus and quizzed Erin, Mira & me for a bit in Kiswahili.  We answered what we could and attempted to look as if we understood the rest.  The police then decided we had nice smiles, told the Jesuits they should get us home and let us go without payment.  Can’t imagine quite what they were looking at as I was hard pressed to manage anything like a smile to them! 

Bingo

Last week was a really good one, I feel like things are falling into place and I’m adjusting my expectations... My time at school was more filled. I introduced the ever faithful bingo to standard 3 & 4 (9 & 10 year olds) and they totally loved it, it as did Mama Moshashu, their teacher. She got so excited we couldn’t just stop at one line & then a house – all the other lines were checked and rewarded with stickers too. The kids absolutely loved the stickers and I was mobbed at the end with kids waving bingo tickets & wanting their picture taken. Mama Moshashu greeted me for the rest of the week with “Teacher Clara – BINGO! Very nice game...”

I also started at the orphanage properly. The older kids were at school so I just stayed for the morning and played with the pre-school kids. Mostly they wanted pushing on the swings, to be held while they shimmied up the frame of the swings (some with already with impressive technique!), to have piggy backs & be swung round. One little girl though just wanted to be held and hugged as much as possible – after all the running round I was quite glad to sit down with her while the others conducted a game of ‘cooking’ with 2 jam jar lids, some leaves and soil...

There isn’t much in the way of toys there but the kids (most of whom have lost their parents to AIDS and are HIV positive) are well looked after by the sisters and seem happy. The sisters have asked me to come after school to do some English ‘teaching’ with the older kids. The first time I did this was a Friday and I was worried they wouldn’t want another ‘lesson’ after a week at school, so I’d taken animal snap – once they got over being too polite with each other, they really loved it. We played some other word games – learned such useful vocab as ‘shuffle’, ‘deal’ and ‘cheat’ and they were really keen to know when I’d be back. So much for not wanting lessons after school! The kids were all standard 4 but some of them were older as they’ve missed out on school in the past. One girl, Paulina was 17 – I’d like to try to figure out some more age appropriate things for her. She was totally lovely & really keen to chat & practice speaking English.

As for the Jesuit community – they’ve been incredibly warm and welcoming and have helped us out of more than a few fixes! We decided to have them all over for dinner last weekend but with the lack of dead meat, no oven, no appliances and at one point in the afternoon, no electricity we were hard pushed to produce anything approaching sustenance! Still, somehow we pulled it off and it was a lovely evening. We were 12 people from 9 counties: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, DRC, Ethiopia, USA, Germany, England, Scotland... That’s one of the best things about this whole experience, coming together with people form very different backgrounds and realising how much we actually share.