It has been just over two years since I arrived here in
Tanzania (and I know, it seems almost as long since I’ve blogged!). Maybe I can blame how overdue this blog post
is on just how well I’ve become integrated into Tanzanian culture. “Tanzania time” is “America time” plus 1 to
3 hours and five minutes. In Swahili the
word kuwahi means “to be on time” but
it is also used to mean “to be early.”
So if you’re on time, well shoot, you’re early, go back home and have
some tea!
Something that has also been very long overdue is the maternity ward bathroom
project. Thank you to all you who generously
contributed! I am delighted to say that it is now complete! Several months ago, we had a village meeting
to develop a project committee and get input.
The meeting in itself was noteworthy… the scheduled meeting was
cancelled due to a funeral and postponed due to important people being
out-of-town. But the next day I got a phone call from the village chairperson,
who said I should come to the clinic real quick because I was already late for my
meeting. When I got there, it appeared
as if they had informed everybody but me
about this meeting because there were so many people there! Here it’s common to have a town crier who
walks around the village at 6-7am announcing news, events, deaths, etc, but he
doesn’t walk all the way to the primary school.
Maybe I could have known about my meeting had he made the hike over to
where I live. Anyway, the men sat
together on the ground under one tree while the women all sat together under
another. People were able to share their
thoughts on the project, but given this was a village meeting out in the open,
there were still stray dogs milling about, chickens scratching dirt, and
roosters interrupting with their coco-rico’s.
Both mamas and babas participated in forming the
project committee, but a lot like the chickens, the males were much more vocal.
Ok, fast forward months and months later, two weeks ago, a
bathroom finally gets finished. 45
mothers a month use this bathroom.
There’s even a bathtub and a solar panel for the mothers who are in
labor in the middle of the night! The
mothers are so grateful! It’s kind of a saga how we eventually raised all of
the community contribution, but one of the ways we got money was through a harambee. Back on May 1st, like every year,
there was a Workers’ Day mei mosi party,
in which government workers throw themselves a party. (This party sort of raises some questions for
me—these people with jobs are already the most privileged, wealthy people in
the village because they have an income, so they throw a party for themselves to
celebrate this?) Anyway, I was very grateful for the workers because at their mei mosi party, they did a harambee , where one person makes a
speech asking for contributions, and people dance their money contributions up
to the stage where someone is holding a basket, also dancing. Even old grandpas dance their way to the
basket with their shillings.
Two years! For most
volunteers these are their last few months in Tanzania. But for me, I haven’t had enough yet! I am extending in Dodoma town for another
year working with an NGO concerned with food security and nutrition. There will be more on my new position once I
get started any day now. Maybe it’s too
much Tanzanian culture getting into me… kuwahi—these
two years have come to a close just on time, but still, it’s early.
