Worst Week Ever.
3/1/10-3/7/10
Remember the MTV show Best Week Ever? Imagine Mo Rocca providing commentary of the montage of horrible events from this past week. Basically it boils down to our house cursed-literally.
It all started a week ago. My roommates all work for a British based org that runs a few different projects. The main project of the organization is an afterschool center for disadvantaged children. The director of the org is a total nutcase. Here are a few examples of the director’s lunacy: she never registered the organization in Tanzania, therefore they are operating illegally and has resisted Asa's attempts to legally register; due to the tight budget Asa switched the guard dogs’ food to a slightly cheaper brand however the director immediately made her switch back stating the dogs are as important to the center as Asa; and because the director has a bad relationship with the owner of the center’s building, she recently sat in her car in front of the gate spying on the landlord wearing a scarf covering her hair and big sunglasses. Totally crazy! This last scenario leads to our bad luck.
The landlord has made every attempt to hinder the center’s work-but only out of spite for the director. (Mind you, the director lives in England and was simply here for a wk long visit) One afternoon while the director was in town my roommates and the director were sitting on the front porch at the center. All of a sudden they heard gibberish coming from the building directly in front of the center. That building is also owned by the spiteful landlord. Kala (my roommate who speaks fluent Swahili) realized the gibberish as a voodoo curse being directed at the center! The landlord had hired a witch doctor to come and put a spell on the center. At first we all laughed at the extreme measures the landlord was going to, however more recently we’ve begun to think perhaps there is to this curse.
Asa has lived in Arusha for 1 ½ years and never lost her phone, had it stolen, or even dropped in a toilet or under a moving car (take my word, it’s easier than you’d think). Thursday morning, it managed to disappear between exiting her boyfriend’s car in our driveway and entering the house. She realized it was gone immediately and began the frantic search but it is nowhere to be found-not in the car and not in the drive nor in the house. The strange thing is that when people steal phones, they immediately put their own sim card in which therefore turns your own phone number off. However, Asa’s number continues to ring! Perhaps it hasn’t been stolen at all but been sent to the black abyss of voodooness.
That same Thursday, Kala was driving out to visit another project of the organization about a 2 hour drive outside of Arusha. On her way there the car began to make funny noises. She decided it was best to turn around and head back. As she made the Uturn, the car died. She got out of the car to push it out of the middle of the road, and was approached by several men who were there to help her. She was smart enough to put all her things in her bag and zip it up, however there was a sneaky devil in the bunch who managed to unzip her bag and steal her wallet while reaching through the driver’s window to ‘steer the car’ as the group pushed. She was then stuck in the middle of nowhere with no cash, no bankcards, no driver’s license. Luckily she did have her phone to call for help but the wallet is long gone.
On Friday as Heather and I were heading back from town we caught a dalladalla. I had to squish in the back. There’s some unwritten rule in Africa that you don’t move over to make room on a bus seat. When I climbed in, a single man was lounging on a seat made for 3-4people. I motioned for him to move over, but instead of moving over he moved his right knee about an inch which meant I was to climb over him and sit by the window. As my stop approached, I stood up, stuck my phone in my back pocket and asked the man to move again. Again, instead of getting up to let me pass he moved his knees to the side. Again I had to step over him to get off. All in one fell swoop, as I stepped with one leg over him he slid his body to the right to where I had been sitting and he spread his legs to I was trapped straddling his knees. I immediately began to shout-the F word and Jesus Christ are universal by the way. I was able to get off the bus. As I turned to cross the street and the dalla sped off, I reached for my phone and it was gone! When the man had jostled me around, he managed to slip my phone out of my pocket. Heather was still on the same dalla, so I ran up the street to a restaurant where I knew a friend would be and call her. As she started to yell at everyone on the dalla-with translation from a fellow rider-the dalla stopped. She thought they were stopping to search the passengers in the 3rd row. Instead they stopped to let people off-ironically from the 3rd row. It was gone for good.
30 minutes later as Heather was heading back to my house from Njiro, she caught another dalla up the road. After waiting a ridiculous amount of time at a single stop, she decided she would catch another dalla since all others seemed to be flying by. Just as she had told the driver she was going to get off, she stepped down with one foot and the driver hit the gas. She tumbled off into the dust.
Just when we thought nothing else could go wrong, it did. Sunday was sunny and clear, and supposed to be the start of a better week. On Saturday we were laughing about how many things had gone wrong and how Jackie had managed to escape it. In her 9months here she has never had anything stolen and never lost anything, until now. She had gone into town to the market and was on her way back. There is a specific bridge in Arusha that everyone warns is a prime spot for theft because the wooded ravine makes for an easy get-away. Just after she had safely crossed the bridge, she greeted 4 young, hip-dressed boys who were walking past her. Right then, one of them ran up to her and grabbed her. Another grabbed her bag. Even though we all would give up our bags to a thief, but your initial reaction is to cling to what you’re holding. Also because it was so unexpected she wasn’t sure how to react. Strangely enough this busy stretch of road normally has many tourists and locals walking along each side and a lot of car traffic, however somehow there was no one and no car in sight. Luckily they only took the bag and ran, but still it was quite a scary situation! She immediately ran up the road to where a security company truck is parked. After she explained the situation, they had her climb into the truck and they drove around looking for the thieves. People in the neighborhoods had seen the culprits and directed the guards to where they were. Eventually though, they lost their trail. After the fact everyone has said oh well that location is dangerous-but it was the middle of the day! She did nothing wrong, it’s the main road into town, it can’t be avoided!
We were discussing how do a group a boys or whoever suddenly decide to rob someone. If even one other person had been walking or one car driving by, this situation would never have happened. Were they waiting there for a solitary walker? From the angle of the road they couldn’t have seen her approaching for very long, so it wouldn’t have given them enough time to plot. Do they just have a standing plan; you grab the arms, you grab the bag, you be the lookout?
Thankfully neither she nor any of us were hurt. Although I’m not typically a believer in witchcraft, desperate times call for desperate measures; we need to find someone who can reverse this spell and cast some good luck on the Philips household! If you know of a good witchdoctor, send him/her our way.
Ps. Mom-do not freak out.
Pps. Other moms, do not freak out.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Thursday, March 4, 2010
February and March Madness
3/4/10
Its hard to believe its already March. February flew by! After returning from Tanga I spent a week in Arusha running around to meetings to finalize our grant application. Since the DC office decided that they wanted every last second to work on the grant, I was nominated to go back down to Dar via hot smelly bus to submit the packet in person at the USAID office. I boarded the bus early Monday morning and arrived in Dar in the evening. Despite the fact that the distance between the two cities isn’t too too far, the bus ride takes about 10hrs-or the travel time between West Lafayette, Indiana to Washington, D.C.!
On the morning the application was due, I finally received the documents via email (they literally took every last minute to work on the grant). The thing to remember is that Kinkos does not exist in Tanzania. Because resources are scarce, often costs for items we would never think of are quite expensive-including paper. First I found an internet café where I could print original copies of the document. Printing costs for this first round was 1,000 Tanzanian shillings for black and white, and 2,000Tsh for color. I bargained with the attendant to agree to 500 T shillings for B&W, 1,000 for color. After printing the 80 pages, my next mission was to make 2 copies of the packet. The first place I found to make copies looked promising. It was a large office space filled with Canon printers. I explained in my best Swahili that I needed 2 copies of the entire document. He understood! He took the first 10 pages of the document and proceeded to copy each page one-by-one. No, no, no can’t the documents be put through the top feeder-I worked in an office, I’m an expert at photocopying! However, this is where our communication failed. If we continued in this fashion, it may have been completed in a year’s time. Luckily I found another copy place just down the hall. Here they could make 2 sets of copies, and bind the originals in no time. After this laborious task was finished, off to another shop to have the files burned onto a CD (who does that anymore?). Without too much hassle I was able to transfer the files to CD, put the packet together, and find a taxi to the US Embassy where USAID is located. The following day, once again I boarded the bus back to Arusha. When this trip was completed, I spent a total of 20+ hours traveling and about 34 hours in Dar.
Just when I was settling back into my routine, I was thrown back into mayhem when the Books for Africa container showed up unannounced after missing for 2months. The container left the US in early November. Estimating liberally, I expected the ship to dock around the 15th of December. When the 15th came and went, I then re-estimated for it to arrive around Christmas. I was worried this would ruin my Zanzibar plans, however I sweated through the holidays without any disturbance from a 40ft container of books. In the mayhem of my first trip to Dar I discovered the clearing agent we had been assigned for the first container, whom I had been talking to regularly, was in fact NOT the agent assigned for this current container! I tracked down the agent, however when I spoke on the phone to the office assistant, she had no record of our container. After (literally) running around Dar in a panic, I found the original paperwork and was able to see the manager of the clearing office. He was aware that he had been assigned this job, had spoken to the logistics officer from the US months before, but somehow failed to communicate with me until I showed up in person. The agent then attempted to hold me responsible for charges up to $1500 for processing fees. This is a donation made possible through a USAID grant-all of these charges are handled up front, and not by me or my organization directly! Once we set aside the extortion, we were able to move forward.
Since that first meeting, I have been calling several times a week to check on the status of the clearing process. This was important as we needed to inform and organized the regional and district education officers to receive the books in Arusha. Even though it is partly the clearing agent’s responsibility to keep me informed, I recognized early on that I would be kept in the dark unless I made the phone calls. This continued for a month when in reality the clearing process should have only taken a week to 2 at most. A week ago, on my daily check in, I was told the container would be loaded and ready for departure the following day. The agent emphasized that HE would call ME once it left with the details of the truck and the drivers’ numbers. 3 days later and still no call. However, I refused to call him out of principle. Perhaps that was my mistake.
Thursday morning I received a phone call from the agent’s office stating that the container had been in Arusha since the day before and they were waiting for me to direct them. I immediately called Lyne and ran down to the REOs office. We needed a permit from the Engineer’s office in order to authorize the travel of the semitruck into town center where the books would be off loaded. We would also have to notify the district officers and organizer day laborers to unload the truck. We were aware of these steps and would have had everything in place-had we been properly informed ahead of time. Since Lyne had other meetings, she left me with Isak to make all the arrangements. If it weren’t for Isak and Heather’s humor, I may have jumped off a bridge that day! We were able to obtain the permit, schedule pick up times with Monduli and Ngorongoro district officers, hire day laborers, and contact the local newspaper.
Friday morning, we met the truck drivers in town to hand over the permit. With Isak’s help the day before, our bicycle taxi drivers/day laborers arrived to offload the truck. Unfortunately because the road up to the main hall was in a bad state, the headmaster would not allow our massive semi truck to drive up close to the building. This meant that our workers would have to carry the boxes of books 100meters to the hall. While that may not sound like a lot, carrying 580 boxes each weighing at least 50-60lbs is no easy feat. These men worked hard! After 4 hours of heavy duty work in 90 degree heat, the job was complete; however not without another hitch. In Moshi we had maybe 15 boxes that arrived unlabeled. As the first few boxes were unloaded off the Arusha truck, I instructed the workers to simply place those in the ‘unknown’ pile; the rest should be placed under their corresponding label on the wall. I expected a few to be unlabeled. In the end, approximately 300 of the 580 boxes remained in the ‘unknown’ pile. While the work was done for the day, I knew I would be back bright and early on Saturday morning to label and organize these lost soldiers.
Sat morning I met Isak and a laborer to go through the boxes before the district officers arrived to take their portions away. After awhile we found a routine. Isak would move across a section of boxes cutting through the tape quickly; I would follow prying open the flaps, determine the category of books inside, and label accordingly on top. Isak would then follow me again to retape. Then our worker friend would heft the box into the appropriate location in the room. 3 ½ hours later, the district officers were ready to collect their books and I was ready for a nap.
Now that this shipment of books is over, I am preparing to put in a request for the next shipment which will head to Karatu and Longido districts. Hopefully in the next week I will make a visit to Karatu to speak to the district education officer as well as stop by the program site for Wellshare Int (formerly Minnesota International Health Volunteers). I’m beginning to think about what will come after this job. I’ve found it much easier to network here than at home…maybe thats because I already feel a little out of my element, and can therefore be more bold than usual and actually talk to people! I also have an invitation to dinner at a woman’s house who is the director of a UMN-connected, population project here in Arusha!
Now I must go and find candles as the power has gone out again. Hopefully the pony-size (as Heather likes to describe them) cockroaches will stay away. I would hate to run into one of those in the dark!
Pictures to come…
3/4/10
Its hard to believe its already March. February flew by! After returning from Tanga I spent a week in Arusha running around to meetings to finalize our grant application. Since the DC office decided that they wanted every last second to work on the grant, I was nominated to go back down to Dar via hot smelly bus to submit the packet in person at the USAID office. I boarded the bus early Monday morning and arrived in Dar in the evening. Despite the fact that the distance between the two cities isn’t too too far, the bus ride takes about 10hrs-or the travel time between West Lafayette, Indiana to Washington, D.C.!
On the morning the application was due, I finally received the documents via email (they literally took every last minute to work on the grant). The thing to remember is that Kinkos does not exist in Tanzania. Because resources are scarce, often costs for items we would never think of are quite expensive-including paper. First I found an internet café where I could print original copies of the document. Printing costs for this first round was 1,000 Tanzanian shillings for black and white, and 2,000Tsh for color. I bargained with the attendant to agree to 500 T shillings for B&W, 1,000 for color. After printing the 80 pages, my next mission was to make 2 copies of the packet. The first place I found to make copies looked promising. It was a large office space filled with Canon printers. I explained in my best Swahili that I needed 2 copies of the entire document. He understood! He took the first 10 pages of the document and proceeded to copy each page one-by-one. No, no, no can’t the documents be put through the top feeder-I worked in an office, I’m an expert at photocopying! However, this is where our communication failed. If we continued in this fashion, it may have been completed in a year’s time. Luckily I found another copy place just down the hall. Here they could make 2 sets of copies, and bind the originals in no time. After this laborious task was finished, off to another shop to have the files burned onto a CD (who does that anymore?). Without too much hassle I was able to transfer the files to CD, put the packet together, and find a taxi to the US Embassy where USAID is located. The following day, once again I boarded the bus back to Arusha. When this trip was completed, I spent a total of 20+ hours traveling and about 34 hours in Dar.
Just when I was settling back into my routine, I was thrown back into mayhem when the Books for Africa container showed up unannounced after missing for 2months. The container left the US in early November. Estimating liberally, I expected the ship to dock around the 15th of December. When the 15th came and went, I then re-estimated for it to arrive around Christmas. I was worried this would ruin my Zanzibar plans, however I sweated through the holidays without any disturbance from a 40ft container of books. In the mayhem of my first trip to Dar I discovered the clearing agent we had been assigned for the first container, whom I had been talking to regularly, was in fact NOT the agent assigned for this current container! I tracked down the agent, however when I spoke on the phone to the office assistant, she had no record of our container. After (literally) running around Dar in a panic, I found the original paperwork and was able to see the manager of the clearing office. He was aware that he had been assigned this job, had spoken to the logistics officer from the US months before, but somehow failed to communicate with me until I showed up in person. The agent then attempted to hold me responsible for charges up to $1500 for processing fees. This is a donation made possible through a USAID grant-all of these charges are handled up front, and not by me or my organization directly! Once we set aside the extortion, we were able to move forward.
Since that first meeting, I have been calling several times a week to check on the status of the clearing process. This was important as we needed to inform and organized the regional and district education officers to receive the books in Arusha. Even though it is partly the clearing agent’s responsibility to keep me informed, I recognized early on that I would be kept in the dark unless I made the phone calls. This continued for a month when in reality the clearing process should have only taken a week to 2 at most. A week ago, on my daily check in, I was told the container would be loaded and ready for departure the following day. The agent emphasized that HE would call ME once it left with the details of the truck and the drivers’ numbers. 3 days later and still no call. However, I refused to call him out of principle. Perhaps that was my mistake.
Thursday morning I received a phone call from the agent’s office stating that the container had been in Arusha since the day before and they were waiting for me to direct them. I immediately called Lyne and ran down to the REOs office. We needed a permit from the Engineer’s office in order to authorize the travel of the semitruck into town center where the books would be off loaded. We would also have to notify the district officers and organizer day laborers to unload the truck. We were aware of these steps and would have had everything in place-had we been properly informed ahead of time. Since Lyne had other meetings, she left me with Isak to make all the arrangements. If it weren’t for Isak and Heather’s humor, I may have jumped off a bridge that day! We were able to obtain the permit, schedule pick up times with Monduli and Ngorongoro district officers, hire day laborers, and contact the local newspaper.
Friday morning, we met the truck drivers in town to hand over the permit. With Isak’s help the day before, our bicycle taxi drivers/day laborers arrived to offload the truck. Unfortunately because the road up to the main hall was in a bad state, the headmaster would not allow our massive semi truck to drive up close to the building. This meant that our workers would have to carry the boxes of books 100meters to the hall. While that may not sound like a lot, carrying 580 boxes each weighing at least 50-60lbs is no easy feat. These men worked hard! After 4 hours of heavy duty work in 90 degree heat, the job was complete; however not without another hitch. In Moshi we had maybe 15 boxes that arrived unlabeled. As the first few boxes were unloaded off the Arusha truck, I instructed the workers to simply place those in the ‘unknown’ pile; the rest should be placed under their corresponding label on the wall. I expected a few to be unlabeled. In the end, approximately 300 of the 580 boxes remained in the ‘unknown’ pile. While the work was done for the day, I knew I would be back bright and early on Saturday morning to label and organize these lost soldiers.
Sat morning I met Isak and a laborer to go through the boxes before the district officers arrived to take their portions away. After awhile we found a routine. Isak would move across a section of boxes cutting through the tape quickly; I would follow prying open the flaps, determine the category of books inside, and label accordingly on top. Isak would then follow me again to retape. Then our worker friend would heft the box into the appropriate location in the room. 3 ½ hours later, the district officers were ready to collect their books and I was ready for a nap.
Now that this shipment of books is over, I am preparing to put in a request for the next shipment which will head to Karatu and Longido districts. Hopefully in the next week I will make a visit to Karatu to speak to the district education officer as well as stop by the program site for Wellshare Int (formerly Minnesota International Health Volunteers). I’m beginning to think about what will come after this job. I’ve found it much easier to network here than at home…maybe thats because I already feel a little out of my element, and can therefore be more bold than usual and actually talk to people! I also have an invitation to dinner at a woman’s house who is the director of a UMN-connected, population project here in Arusha!
Now I must go and find candles as the power has gone out again. Hopefully the pony-size (as Heather likes to describe them) cockroaches will stay away. I would hate to run into one of those in the dark!
Pictures to come…
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The Roller Coaster Ride also known as the month of January
The Roller Coaster Ride of January
2/3/10
The month of January has signified a turning point. Not only is it a new year, but January marks the completion of my third month in Tanzania. January has been a busy month-with many highs and lows! I’ll take you through down the rocky road it has been.
(High) After traveling to Zanzibar for Xmas, I returned to Arusha to ring in the New Year. I celebrated New Years Eve with dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and then headed to a central round about in town to watch fireworks. After the new year I resumed working on the Books for Africa project, visited the education offices, etc.
(Low) One week after the new year, while out with friends, my purse was stolen off of the bar counter (I was standing right in front of it, and two friend sat on either side of where I set it. (Yes, yes I know. I don’t need the lecture about being more careful with my things). While I was saddened that my cash, bank card, and phone were stolen, I was more upset that my special little purse I bought at a boutique while visiting my sister in LA and special key chain I’ve had for 10years bought in Toledo, Spain were gone too! I figured the bank card would be useless to the thieves-NO WHERE in Arusha or greater Tanzania uses credit, and chances were that they weren’t savvy enough to buy a flat screen tv online. But still I (and my mother) had to go through a great deal of trouble to cancel the card from my US bank! I also lost all my phone numbers, which is the main form of doing business in Tz. my IDs were gone, as were my house keys. What a pain!
(High and Low)The following Monday, as I tried to recollect the lost bits of my life I received an urgent email from the program director with orders to go to Dar es Salaam immediately! USAID had released a funding opportunity and I was to go to Dar to network with orgs, research Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children (OVCs)issues, and sell our org as a potential partner/sub-grantee to bigger health orgs like Family Health International (FHI) and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). While I was excited to start a new project and re-enter the world of public health, it was a little untimely considering the loss of all my important possessions! However, I pulled it together, popped a Dramamine and boarded the bus to Dar. The length of time I was to spend in Dar was indefinite which added another stressor to the trip. I was warmly welcomed at the fabulous Chateau Imee and Tom.
(High) Imee and Tom (fellows for CDC) live in a very nice apartment on the peninsula in Dar, outfitted with fast internet and cable TV! Living in the lap of luxury! Additionally, I received a call from an employee of the bar where my purse was stolen-it had been returned with all my possessions (sans cash)! I was ecstatic! Many of my Tz friends had told me similar stories about how their wallets had been stolen, and then returned to a post office, or even put in an envelope and placed under a random car’s windshield wiper. I figured with my luck, I would never see my purse again. Apparently these thieves had some shred of decency or perhaps they heard me lamenting about my fav keychain that I’ve had for 10 years!
(Low)Despite spending many hours in Imee’s guest room/office on the internet and phone trying to arrange meetings, I succeeded in setting only two during the two weeks I was in Dar. Many organizations have been working in the realm of OVCs for many years and are opting to continue with their current partners; others are not to applying for this grant; and still others felt that my org could not offer additional skills or services that they themselves (Mom/editor in chief/corrector of my speech, is that proper English?) already provide. This was definitely frustrating. This also changed my orgs approach to the grant: instead of applying along with another org as a subgrantee, we would now apply as a primary grant recipient. It also meant I would have to move on to Tanga to do more leg work.
(High) Imee and Tom are great hosts! While in Dar I ate great food: sushi, fish and chips, burger! Aside from the food and MTV, it was also nice to hang out with Imee because she can be such a motivator. As a type-A personality, Imee is a go getter, not afraid to talk to people, and is networking 24/7-pretty much my complete opposite! Through her encouragement and connections, I’ve begun to think about my next steps here and even passed along my resume. This position has been a great foot-in-the-door, but I know my next job has to be public health work full time. I’m planning a return visit to Dar to conduct some informal, informational interviews that will hopefully lead to something fruitful!
(High) Even though Tanga is probably a 4hr drive north of Dar, of course in reality it took 7hrs. Tanga town is a small seaside town with friendly people, beautiful water, and cheap eats! My first night I met a local who told me all about Tanga, showed me where the internet shop and a nice little restaurant were. On Saturday night, I accompanied him and a few Norwegians (who were staying at the same motel) to dinner and the local disco. Turns out-he knows my roommate from Zanzibar! Small world, Tanzania is. Monday morning I had a productive meeting with the regional director of the social welfare department. Even though I unexpectedly dropped by the office, the director took the time to answer all my questions, he and another officer personally escorted me to two children centers to help me with my research! This is a testament to 1) the niceness of the people here, 2) the different way in which business operates in Africa.
(All time low!) Since I had lost my purse prior to departing for Dar, I only had X amount of money, and no emergency-bank-card-withdrawing-access-as-safety-net. I had budgeted exactly enough money to for the trip and to get home—or so I thought. When I checked out of the hotel I was informed that I still owed 40,000 T shillings. I only had 40,000Tsh left, total! When I booked the room, I thought the man had said 20,000Tsh/2 nights. Apparently it was 20,000/night. After looking very upset and pathetic, the man relented and accepted 30,000. That left me with 10,000Tsh for the bus. When I arrived at the bus station, I informed the booking people that I only had 12,000. They told me that would only get me to Moshi-again I looked sad and pathetic and they said OK. THANK GOODNESS EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE IN AFRICA. Usually this loosey goosey system drives me nuts: as a white person I tend to get overcharged, but in this case it worked to my advantage.
I made it safely back to Arusha. While the seaside view was beautiful, after 3 weeks of being on the road its good to be home! Since I didn’t think I would be traveling to all these places, I neglected to bring my camera to visually document the journey. When Erik comes to visit in March, I’ll have to retrace my steps and photograph the lovely places along the way (hint, hint Erik-buy that ticket!)
2/3/10
The month of January has signified a turning point. Not only is it a new year, but January marks the completion of my third month in Tanzania. January has been a busy month-with many highs and lows! I’ll take you through down the rocky road it has been.
(High) After traveling to Zanzibar for Xmas, I returned to Arusha to ring in the New Year. I celebrated New Years Eve with dinner at a Chinese restaurant, and then headed to a central round about in town to watch fireworks. After the new year I resumed working on the Books for Africa project, visited the education offices, etc.
(Low) One week after the new year, while out with friends, my purse was stolen off of the bar counter (I was standing right in front of it, and two friend sat on either side of where I set it. (Yes, yes I know. I don’t need the lecture about being more careful with my things). While I was saddened that my cash, bank card, and phone were stolen, I was more upset that my special little purse I bought at a boutique while visiting my sister in LA and special key chain I’ve had for 10years bought in Toledo, Spain were gone too! I figured the bank card would be useless to the thieves-NO WHERE in Arusha or greater Tanzania uses credit, and chances were that they weren’t savvy enough to buy a flat screen tv online. But still I (and my mother) had to go through a great deal of trouble to cancel the card from my US bank! I also lost all my phone numbers, which is the main form of doing business in Tz. my IDs were gone, as were my house keys. What a pain!
(High and Low)The following Monday, as I tried to recollect the lost bits of my life I received an urgent email from the program director with orders to go to Dar es Salaam immediately! USAID had released a funding opportunity and I was to go to Dar to network with orgs, research Orphans and Other Vulnerable Children (OVCs)issues, and sell our org as a potential partner/sub-grantee to bigger health orgs like Family Health International (FHI) and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF). While I was excited to start a new project and re-enter the world of public health, it was a little untimely considering the loss of all my important possessions! However, I pulled it together, popped a Dramamine and boarded the bus to Dar. The length of time I was to spend in Dar was indefinite which added another stressor to the trip. I was warmly welcomed at the fabulous Chateau Imee and Tom.
(High) Imee and Tom (fellows for CDC) live in a very nice apartment on the peninsula in Dar, outfitted with fast internet and cable TV! Living in the lap of luxury! Additionally, I received a call from an employee of the bar where my purse was stolen-it had been returned with all my possessions (sans cash)! I was ecstatic! Many of my Tz friends had told me similar stories about how their wallets had been stolen, and then returned to a post office, or even put in an envelope and placed under a random car’s windshield wiper. I figured with my luck, I would never see my purse again. Apparently these thieves had some shred of decency or perhaps they heard me lamenting about my fav keychain that I’ve had for 10 years!
(Low)Despite spending many hours in Imee’s guest room/office on the internet and phone trying to arrange meetings, I succeeded in setting only two during the two weeks I was in Dar. Many organizations have been working in the realm of OVCs for many years and are opting to continue with their current partners; others are not to applying for this grant; and still others felt that my org could not offer additional skills or services that they themselves (Mom/editor in chief/corrector of my speech, is that proper English?) already provide. This was definitely frustrating. This also changed my orgs approach to the grant: instead of applying along with another org as a subgrantee, we would now apply as a primary grant recipient. It also meant I would have to move on to Tanga to do more leg work.
(High) Imee and Tom are great hosts! While in Dar I ate great food: sushi, fish and chips, burger! Aside from the food and MTV, it was also nice to hang out with Imee because she can be such a motivator. As a type-A personality, Imee is a go getter, not afraid to talk to people, and is networking 24/7-pretty much my complete opposite! Through her encouragement and connections, I’ve begun to think about my next steps here and even passed along my resume. This position has been a great foot-in-the-door, but I know my next job has to be public health work full time. I’m planning a return visit to Dar to conduct some informal, informational interviews that will hopefully lead to something fruitful!
(High) Even though Tanga is probably a 4hr drive north of Dar, of course in reality it took 7hrs. Tanga town is a small seaside town with friendly people, beautiful water, and cheap eats! My first night I met a local who told me all about Tanga, showed me where the internet shop and a nice little restaurant were. On Saturday night, I accompanied him and a few Norwegians (who were staying at the same motel) to dinner and the local disco. Turns out-he knows my roommate from Zanzibar! Small world, Tanzania is. Monday morning I had a productive meeting with the regional director of the social welfare department. Even though I unexpectedly dropped by the office, the director took the time to answer all my questions, he and another officer personally escorted me to two children centers to help me with my research! This is a testament to 1) the niceness of the people here, 2) the different way in which business operates in Africa.
(All time low!) Since I had lost my purse prior to departing for Dar, I only had X amount of money, and no emergency-bank-card-withdrawing-access-as-safety-net. I had budgeted exactly enough money to for the trip and to get home—or so I thought. When I checked out of the hotel I was informed that I still owed 40,000 T shillings. I only had 40,000Tsh left, total! When I booked the room, I thought the man had said 20,000Tsh/2 nights. Apparently it was 20,000/night. After looking very upset and pathetic, the man relented and accepted 30,000. That left me with 10,000Tsh for the bus. When I arrived at the bus station, I informed the booking people that I only had 12,000. They told me that would only get me to Moshi-again I looked sad and pathetic and they said OK. THANK GOODNESS EVERYTHING IS NEGOTIABLE IN AFRICA. Usually this loosey goosey system drives me nuts: as a white person I tend to get overcharged, but in this case it worked to my advantage.
I made it safely back to Arusha. While the seaside view was beautiful, after 3 weeks of being on the road its good to be home! Since I didn’t think I would be traveling to all these places, I neglected to bring my camera to visually document the journey. When Erik comes to visit in March, I’ll have to retrace my steps and photograph the lovely places along the way (hint, hint Erik-buy that ticket!)
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