Friday, December 14, 2012

The Epic Weather Forecast, Big Parties, Shangazi


Back in September I was very amused by an official report from the Tanzanian government that I found on my counterpart’s desk.  It was a weather forecast for November.  I am no skeptic of the art of weather forecasting (I am a devoted follower of Tom Skilling on Facebook), but c’mon, a weather forecast two months in advance?  Well the 10-page report predicted rains bigger and more frequent than usual that would begin a month early, probably the first week of November.  And I’ll be damned, it started raining the first week of November and it has been exactly as they predicted: huge.  Farmers are very excited about the abundant rain, and I too love the rain—everything is green again plus I’m relieved of the daily chore of fetching water.  However, last year’s rains were very light, so I never saw just how, well, flooded things can get.  My house is at the primary school, across a small stream from the village.  There is a nice footbridge over the stream.  As of this morning, it serves as a nice break halfway through 100 yards of knee-deep wading.  The field around the stream is Flooded.  For mom: I’m sure the water is perfectly clean and there are no parasites in it.  This rainy season I am going to have to a) work very hard at motivating to venture into the village b) pick up more periods at the primary school and c) maintain a generous stock of food and New Yorkers in my house. 

On the first of this month, my village hosted Chamwino district’s World AIDS Day event.  Back in September, I went to the district office to request HIV tests and testers.  Not only did they accept, they said that because I was the first to plan an event, they would do the district event in my village.  It was a nice-ish surprise, because it meant a bigger event, but it also meant…a bigger event.  With a vijana (youth) group, we had a 2-day seminar on HIV peer education, then we planned a weeklong soccer tournament.  At every game they did condom demonstrations, games and skits.  The final game was World AIDS Day.  The night before, an organization from Dodoma came to show a movie about HIV at the health center.  Hundreds of people came to watch, and people started testing and continued until past 1am.  The day of the event, we had traditional drummers from sub-villages (they were amazing), some young people performed raps they had written, our vijana group did their skits, there were many speeches and games.  And then there was a feast! Overall, it was a huge success. 

Tanzanian celebrations are pretty funny to me because they throw this big celebration but everything is for the invited guests.  The district coordinators and officers and chairpeople and school principles and committee leaders and all the fat cats sit in rows under a tent at a table decorated with fake flowers and the performances are all directed to the one very special guest.  Then the villagers crowd around in a horseshoe around the performances.   For a similar event in America, the performances would be directed towards the crowd, directed towards the people they're trying to send a message to.  But in Tanzania, people get really worked up about having a special guest, and the event is for him or her.  The food is all for the invited guests. The day before the event, a student was asking me about the event.  "And when Kikwete coming, tomorrow?" Kikwete is the president of Tanzania.  Um...no.

227 people tested and since World AIDS Day there has been a 500% increase of people asking to be tested at the health center.  Of those who tested 2 people tested positive, which is very low compared to typical rates in Tanzania.  One of those people is refusing to get treatment and tell her husband so that he can get tested, which of course is incredibly disheartening and challenging to say the least.  But the other person who tested positive is an inspiration—she is exceedingly open about her situation, very open to advice and help.  She has already adjusted her diet and she is learning different ways to increase her CD4 count.  We can only hope that that first woman will eventually come to accept her situation after she has had some time to digest her results.  Is it even legal in America do willfully hide your status from your partner?

Since my last post, I have continued with Pre-Form 1 English, the intensive English program for kids going into Secondary school, and it ended this week with school’s closing.  It went pretty well.  There were fewer students than I had hoped for, but it’s hard to get kids to show up to school when school is already out.  But for the kids who did show up, their progress was amazing to see.  Some kids came every day, but others showed up once in a while, and contrasting the abilities of the kids with perfect attendance with the ones who hadn’t been keeping up, their progress was so evident; it made me so proud!  When the new school year starts in January, it will be interesting to see how it works out teaching the curriculum over the course of a year instead of a few weeks. 

In October, I had an amazing visit with my dear Aunt. We visited my village where she tasted ugali, met all my friends and schmoozed with the nuns. And we went on an amazing safari.  We saw the staggering wildebeest crossing at the Mara River, got charged by a rhino, flew in thrillingly small and old planes and identified over 100 new birds to add to my list.  Incredible.  Oh that trip could take up a blog entry all of its own, but for another day.

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