Construction has begun

First Day – The first day of construction, we didn’t do too much, but we did saw some wood for Mr. Paulo, and pounded some nails into boards. The children were fascinated with the wazungus doing work, and they made their fascination evident in the 15+ strong audience we had while we were working.

Second Day – (Saturday) When we showed up on Saturday morning, Mr. Paulo had drawn an oval in the ground, about 8 ft long by 5 ft wide (for building the stands for the tanks that will hold the water). Then, he told us that we had to dig two feet down. Within this circle, there were several ant holes with little ants buzzing all over the ground (which probably attributed to those mysterious bites that popped up on our legs during the day). The kids, like the day before, were equally as fascinated and insisted on helping us. We let them use the shovels, but one kid kept going for the pick. He does not know what the word “No” means, even when spoken in his own language. The kids were around us throughout the day. In the afternoon, a few villagers came to help us, including a woman Mr. Paulo dubbed Mama Axe for her skills with the pick axe. By around 5 p.m. We finally finished the hole and were dripping sweat. I, Monica, was so covered in dirt I joked with a few Tanzanians that I looked like them now. I quickly showered and we had dinner.

Third day – Today was a cloudy day (Thank God – Alhamdoulillah), and it started raining! On the second day, Mr. Paulo had finished the gutters on the first building, also the biggest. The little drizzle that was coming from the sky was enough to fill up the gutters to produce a tiny little trickle coming out of the pipes. We celebrated by filling up a water bottle and drinking it! Then, we showed the bottle of water to a few people in the village saying it was the “first bottle of water from the rain.” The afternoon has been pretty easy because we only filled the holes halfway with sand. The next step is to fill them the rest of the way with stone, but we don’t have the rock to put in the holes yet. Mr. Paulo is working on the gutters, and all the wood has been cut, so there really isn’t much to do.

That’s all the work we’ve done for now. A lot is getting done and we are very excited to see it happen!

The project has started

The project has officially started. They cut some wood this morning, or something. Logan got back from Dar last night, and was excited to see the sim tanks near the primary school this morning.

I missed this, but was told by Sebastian that when the truck arrived, a bunch of people from the village all gathered around to help unload the truck. Apparently, they didn’t really believe the wazungus were going to be actually doing this project until the truck showed up.

This morning (Friday) we started the project. We showed up at the school where one man was cutting some wood. Then, the bureaucratic process began. The school is still under construction, and the contractor of the school project must have his say in the project. Thus, construction has yet to begin, and we’re currently renegotiating the budget to possibly add more. But, we’re getting to the point where there is no more money available.

The original plan was to put two sim tanks on each of the four buildings, totaling eight. Now, they’re thinking about putting four tanks on two buildings. But, this will up the budget a couple hundred thousand shillings. Not going to happen.

The reason why we even thought about changing the first plan was because one of the buildings had paint on its roof, and according to this website (http://www.okinternational.org/lead_paint_background.html) Tanzania is one of the countries that still sells lead paint for painting homes. I really don’t want to gamble with lead poisoning in this village. So we’ve just made a few changes to exclude the painted roof.

Logan:

Hey all! I’m back safely from Dar! I’m so glad to be back. That place is too crazy for me. Sometimes I get very frustrated with how some of the people see tourists just as something to exploit for money. I just have to remember that most of the people aren’t like that. It’s just that those few people are the ones that are easiest to pay attention to (think of many prominent radio hosts in the US). Because of this, some tourists come here and leave, only remembering, “My god, the streets are full of thieves!” I’ve been avoiding this mindset and trying to remember that there are thieves in every country, it’s just that the thieves that live in America live in their multi-million dollar homes, so you won’t find them in the streets (oops… was that too much?).

Anyways, as Monica said, all the equipment is here and the people in the village are happy to see it. I am too, because it means that the multi-thousand dollar wire transfer we made the other day went where it was intended to go. Yay! Also, we can start our project! Today we put some nails in some boards and also sawed a bunch of boards for the gutter fittings. Tomorrow, we’re going to dig big ol’ holes for the cement water tank stands. I took pictures and I’ll post them when I have the opportunity. Thanks for tuning in!

Short post

Hey All!

Logan is currently in Dar es Salaam with the contractor and a representative of the village. He called to tell me that everything is looking good. He'll be back tomorrow (thursday). The truck will either be arriving tonight (wednesday) or tomorrow with Logan. We're excited to get the project started. We've had a lot of down time, and planning going on, but it's finally time to do what we're supposed to be doing.

I finished a book today, called "Desperately seeking paradise: Journeys of a skeptical muslim." It's a very interesting book about a moderate muslim scholar and his explorations of different sects of Islam, how they interpret the Koran, and how he believes the Koran should be interpreted. He's written a bunch of books about this topic and the future of Muslims and Muslim societies throughout the world. Very very interesting. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary Islamic studies.

That's all for now. We'll have a better progress update tomorrow when Logan gets back and is able to talk about the trip to Dar.

Progress and Bonus Photo

Hi there! Above, I've included a bonus photo above that I took early in the morning one day.

Here's the progress report:

The project is coming along very well. Yesterday, we had the final planning meeting to finalize everything. Construction should actually start by this coming weekend! We finally found transportation for a reasonable cost. Today we initiated a wire transaction to a bank account in Tanzania from which we will pay for our contractor, supplies, and transportation. As soon as that money arrives, the contractor, the head school teacher, and I will take an overnight trip to Dar es Salaam to pay the supplier in person. After the transaction is complete, the supplies should come to Saadani the next day. Great!

It has taken Monica and I a lot of work and a lot of patience to get this far. We are very happy that the ball is now rolling. We really look forward to helping out during construction as well!

Oranges are green

One thing I’ve learned as I’ve traveled to a few countries in this world is that some things are the same and not everything is different. Then there is the area between, things that remind you of home.

I have a sickness that has plagued me for the last 6 months: homesickness. It really didn’t make a difference if I was in Minnesota, South Dakota or Tanzania, I just really missed Dutch Harbor. I’ve been homesick for a while now. This disease has caused me to become somewhat of an anthropologist, in the sense that I compare and contrast every iota to the existence that I know best, living in Dutch Harbor.

There are the little things that are the same: the ocean is still blue, the grass is still green, and small town life is the same (if there is a new person in town, we know the color of their shoes 20 minutes after the plane landed).

There are the big things that are different that remind you you’re “not in Dutch Harbor anymore.” Things like: that racial rainbow is gone, and you’re the main attraction of all the village children, seeking candy, crying “wazungu” (foreigner), that whole language thing, manners, accidently pounding with the left hand, and green oranges.

While green oranges may not initially strike one as a major cultural difference, you’d be surprised. I say this because green oranges remind me of the one thing that is different in every country I’ve visited so far, and that is food. It doesn’t matter if you’re only going to McDonald’s in London… oh, bad example.

But my experience with food has been interesting. There have been times when all I wanted were buffalo wings in Egypt, or applesauce in Senegal, but it just wasn’t possible. Instead, I learned to love the food I found. Since being in Tanzania, I’ve been [probably] clinically overdosing on the quantity of rice consumed. However, a surprise that I’ve found is that I really really like ugali, which has a similar consistency to polenta.

Before coming to Tanzania, I had the honor of listening to Logan gush about all the foods we were going to eat and how much he loved chapatti. When I got here, my body was so overloaded on starch and carbs, I could barely digest the stuff. But after a few weeks, I love it too. When we go to the village for breakfast (some days we just eat in our hut), we always have two chapatti and chai (tea).

Now, it’s time to talk about chai. When visiting Turkey, I had caffeine withdrawals from my daily 3 or 4 cups of coffee. But during this time, I grew to love Turkish çay (pronounced chai). Turkish çay is very sweet (mostly sugar). After leaving Turkey and going to Morocco, the mint tea that everyone had was as equally stocked full of sugar, and only once or twice did I have a café au lait (90% lait – milk). When we went to Egypt, I was distraught to find a lack of tea, but thus began my love of instant coffee. After drinking Nescafe for 6 weeks, I have an appreciation of instant coffee that I will never loose. I share one of my most memorable travel moments with Nescafe. I was traveling in Israel with my friend, Justin, in Dec 2007. We decided to stay at Ein Gedi, a bump-in-the-road town near Masada on the Dead Sea. I woke up on Christmas Eve morning, went out to our little balcony and sat there drinking my instant coffee looking at the morning sun from the east on the Dead Sea. And with my host family in Senegal, I was more than overjoyed to find a tin of Nescafe sitting next to my half-loaf of French bread and slice of Laughing cow.

Between the instant coffee and super sweet tea, I have discovered both new vices and new comforts while traveling. These comforts always make traveling a little easier. Sometimes, all you want is AC, a hot shower, and a power outlet, but that’s not always available. When those comforts of home aren’t available, sweet tea and instant coffee will cure any homesickness and remind me why I love being on the road so much. And surprisingly, even though the oranges are green, they are still succulent.

Something Interesting from my Reading

Currently I am reading Pathologies of Power, by Paul Farmer. I found a passage that may be interesting and relevant to any health professionals reading our blog in South Dakota. Paul Farmer commonly refers to his experience in rural Haiti, but I found the following passage very relevant to healthcare in Pine Ridge:

"Certainly, patients may be noncompliant, but how relevant is the notion of compliance in rural Haiti? Doctors may instruct their patients to eat well. But the patients will "refuse" if they have no food. They may be told to sleep in an open room and away from others, and here again they will be "noncompliant" if they do not expand and remodel their miserable huts. They may be instructed to go to a hospital. But if hospital care must be paid for in cash, as is the case throughout Haiti, and the patients have no cash, they will be deemed "grossly negligent.""

I often hear people blaming poor health outcomes in Pine Ridge on the "agency of the patient." It is interesting and important, I believe, to take into account this alternate perspective.

Politics, as usual (?)

There is an election in Tanzania in October… surprise! We were unaware of this until it was recently explained to us by Grace, that every time there is an election in Tanzania, all projects cease.

The opposition party promises they’ll do the projects, while the incumbents are worried about retaining their seats, so the projects do not get started. If the incumbents start a project, then the opposition party accuses them of planning to do so before the election to gain popularity.

And we have been caught in the middle. We were told that some individuals in the village thought that our water project was a political move by the powers that be, and they were against it.

In this election cycle, EVERYONE will be voted on. All the way down to our friend Juma, the executive officer. Every now and then, this fact is brought to our attention, and it is a little disheartening.

Project Update: The last thing we’re trying to figure out is how to pay for transportation. We’re trying to find the most inexpensive means of transportation. We have about 500 leftover in the budget, and we’re not sure if this would be enough to hire a driver and do everything in one haul. Because of this fact, we’re looking at borrowing a truck from the district (depending on size), and we’d only have to pay for the fuel.

Other than that, we are able to buy all of the supplies from one company in Dar es Salaam, and then we’ll start the project. Hopefully we’ll be doing all of that within the next couple of days (2-5 days).