Ushujaa

Tyler jumping over a puddle and me about to follow. Rain, whenever it happens, is intense here.

RAIN

A drama perfomed by a class at the village

Tug of war

Bottle racing

Today we helped facilitate an HIV/AIDS awareness event called Ushujaa with our local partner organization ZANGOC. The event consisted of 2 dramas and a poem about HIV/AIDS, music, and many games such as bottle racing (where women balanced bottles full of water on their heads and raced across a short distance), lime and spoon racing, sack racing, potatoe racing, doughnut eating competition, and tug of war. It was fun and rewarding for everyone involved.

We were responsible for estimating the crowd size, keeping track of the number of participants in each event, along with their age and sex. We also helped distribute flyers about HIV/AIDS to people in the crowd; we managed to get rid of most of them. The crowd size itself was about 400, however 50% of them were under the age of 15 and did not understand our message. 40% were between the ages of 15 and 30, which is our intended audience for the inofrmation to reach because this is the age where people are most sexually active. Approximately 10% were above the age of 30. Of everyone, 60% of the crowd was female and the remaining 40% male. As well as keeping track of the number of people involved, we also had to conduct small 5 question interviews with as many people as we could about their knowledge of the disease, as well as if they believed Ushujaa actually helped spread the message.

The event took place in a small village far outside of Stone Town, and we hired a bus to take the YCI staff and volunteers, as well as the members of ZANGOC to this place. The bus followed a paved road for a while, then turned off onto a dirt road. After going over tons of bumps and being jolted out of our seats, the driver finally decided he was not going to risk damaging his bus. Kaiza and Shaib, 2 of our staff members, argued with the man for half an hour. Kaiza always means business, and I felt sorry for the bus driver who had to face her. Finally everyone got off the bus and walked the remaining distance on foot. The heat was intense and I was out of water by the time we reached the isolated little village in the middle of nowhere 30 minutes later. I thought to myself "How is a little place like this going to hold a big event like Ushujaa?" I guess people must have been hiding in the ground or something because seemingly out of nowhere we had a crowd of 300 within 20 minutes, and in another 40 minutes it had grown to 400.

Also on a side note we are in the "small rain season" here, so every once and a while it will downpour for an hour to half a day and soak everything that dares to go outside. It's a nice cool-down after being sweltered each day in the sun (30 degrees here normally). I heard that it snowed in St Andrews a few days ago. That sounds outrageous. I'll probably get frostbite the second I step off the plane in November...

Zanzibar

This is a family I took a picture of in Mahonda.

Burning garbage is the most common method of getting rid of it here. The hill is not actually a hill, simply trash.

Livestock feeding on what we throw out.

A field of garbage you'd see anywhere on the island. The houses in the background are residential buildings considered good quality here. They were built by the Chinese years ago, hence the area's name Mchina.

Normal living conditions in Stone Town

Some people have asked me to describe the real Zanzibar, the one that I see all around me, every day, all the time. Here it is.

I live in a nice house. The family I live with owns 3 houses in real estate, a daladala, and the father has a job working with the Tanzanian government. The family is pretty much set for life unless some sort of natural disaster occurs. The house beside mine, however, is a crumbling mess of rocks and sticks. The wall that is supposed to offer some sort of privacy or protection has a gaping hole in it that is open for everyone to walk through.

Everywhere I go there is trash. There is no escaping it. In Canada, I walk around pieces of stray garbage. Here I walk through it. The trash itself is flattened and compacted, pressed into the ground so firmly from all the feet that step on it that it is sometimes hard to tell exactly what it originally was. Last week I didn't notice that I had stepped on a smushed rat until it stuck to the bottom of my sandal. There is hardly anywhere to put trash here, and those places must be completely full. Here the only way I see people getting rid of garbage is burning it in the streets. There are many football fields in Zanzibar. The edges of these are lined with heaps of garbage, and picking through it all are cows, cats, chickens, and dogs. It really makes me wonder what exactly I'm eating whenever I'm served meat here. A month ago I would have thought that this much garbage is violating human rights, now I just accept it.

Speaking of human rights, on Monday Tyler and I were teaching our English Club some human rights. In front of the students was the UN Declaration of Human Rights. We said "These are rights that everyone in the world has. We are all equal, we all have a right to an opinion and a free press." A girl stood up, and in broken English stated "Here in Tanzania we do not have Article 2."

Zanzibar has a 60% unemployment rate. Most people have created small businesses for themselves for sustenance living. Stalls and makeshift markets line the road as people try to sell their wares that we would find anywhere in Canada. Everyone sells the same thing it seems. Bananas, sunglasses, skirts, chickens, miscellaneous items, whatever they can get their hands on.

Yesterday in Mahonda was interesting. After teaching my class Stephanie and I went to find some food. While we were eating we saw a drunk father beat his son with a stick in public. I was so furious, I had to force myself to stay seated and watch as the kid was beaten to the ground. As his father dragged him home, the red lines of blood running down the sobbing boy's face were clearly visible.

My friend Carlos also took me to his house that day. He led me down a dirt path a short distance from the school to a door that didn't fit its frame. His little brother answered the door, and we entered his house. There was not much, a small dirt patch without a roof, and an open air kitchen on the side with 2 rooms seperated by curtains were the only things there. His mother and father were there sitting on the ground eating their food. They greeted me warmly and asked how life was in Canada. I replied, "I Canada life is good. Very good." The father shook his head and said, "Here life is bad. Zanzibar is poor. See?" he pointed around him at the surroundings. "Zanzibar is poor. We have no money. It is good that Carlos knows English, because now he can go to Canada and get a good job. You will take him with you to Canada." I said "If Carlos has enough money to come to Canada, I promise you he can live with me for as long as he likes." The man thanked me, his gratitude was overwhelming. Carlos led me away from his house. "When I come to Canada, I make enough to bring the rest of my family there too." "Why Canada? Why not Europe or America? They are good too." "Because you are in Canada" was his only answer.

Wherever Tyler, Steph and I walk there are always groups of men sitting down with their backs against the wall, staring at the traffic go past them. These are the men who are unemployed, who are not able to provide for their families. It seems there is no end to them.

The overpopulation is outstanding here. So far I have not seen a speck of land that has not been turned into use for humans. Nothing is wasted. When cows graze in the soccer fields it is because there is nowhere else for them to go. They are moved to the side when matches occur. Even in the rural areas I have not seen a clump of trees that are not used for growing spices or coconuts. It is impossible to escape the prescence of humans, and it seems to me that the situation is only going to get worse. Every day when school gets out there is an ocean of pale yellow and dark blue uniforms clustering around candy stalls, riding on daladalas or simply walking down the street for those who cannot afford a ride.

The food is interesting here. Everything is fried, grilled or is a fruit. Yesterday my diet was fried bread, an orange, 2 servings of french fries, 4 samosas, and fried shrimp (small portions of each). Today will be similar, and on the way back to my class soon I will be eating more fried food that Mama has prepared me. The other day we went to a restaurant, the same one I went to on my first day here. I ordered the same meal and was unable to finish it. This tells me that my stomach has shrunken considerably within the last 3 and a half weeks. I wonder what it will be like in another 5 weeks.

Don't get me wrong, I still love every day I'm here. Volunteering here is one of the best things that has ever happened to me; I've been waiting years to come here. Now that I've arrived, the reality is far more shocking than I thought it would be...

More pics

The pic of the field and road is in Mahonda where we teach English This was moments before we saw a huge foot long lizard run across the road. The other pictures are of a resort we went to on the weekend for a night. Had a great time, did some snorkeling, went to a party or a disco as they call it here. Will add more later.

What's happened since yesterday

Today a woman from an unknown number and who only spoke swahili called our house 6 times at 8:00 in the morning and woke Tyler and I up. Each time we answered she hung up. Sketchy....

Also in today's news we went gift shopping for people back home. I won't say what I bought though because it will ruin the surprise for Mom and Anna. We got everything dirt cheap because a man took us around to the cheapest places simply because he's a nice guy. People are so awesome here, it seems like everyone is willing to do something like this for us.

We went to Mahonda to teach English and computers, but Tyler and Mcha were the only ones teaching computer class for an hour and a half so Steph and I decided to walk around the rural landscape. Needless to say, we felt like there was nothing out there and that we were in the middle of nowhere. We also saw a lizard scurry across the road that was about a foot long (no joke) but it was moving fast so there was no time to get a picture of it. It was a strange sight, the two of us white people in the middle of a rural farming area in Africa. Whoever saw us stared for a second or two, and the confusion on their faces was pretty obvious.

Last night we celebrated Thanksgiving a day late. We went to an Italian restaurant because it was the closest thing to Western food we could find, and we ate some really delicious pizza. It was a good way to forget about work and enjoy the island atmosphere.

I would publish pictures but for some reason the sky is red in a lot of them; it's definetely a problem with this computer so I'll try to post some next time.

Today I ate a burger!!!! WOOT!

Hey everyone!

My first week of classes is over and done, and I've just started my second. It's hard to believe that 6 weeks from today I will be on my way home to Canada.

I'm making better friends with the locals and am starting to know my family better. I spend a lot of time with Ali, Yeyea, and Naila, the 3 youngest, and am starting to become friends with Mohammed, the oldest. I only ever see them in the afternoon because during the week they have school Monday-Friday from 7-1, which means they must be up for 6 (which is brutal).

My classes are going well. I teach a computer class twice a week, an English Club once a week where we discuss present political issues (both local and international), and 2 sets of English classes twice a week, one in a rural area and one near my home in an urban area. Surprisingly the rural students have been much more outspoken and eager to participate in class. The staff of YCI says this is unusual since they have less access to education resources and rarely see white people; in the staff's experience it is usually the urban kids who are talkative. Participation rates are decent, considering that all classes have at least 20 people signed up for each, and 14-15 show up for each session (except for urban english where only 6 people show up each class). So far we've been trying to get everyone comfortable in speaking English and are working on nouns. The kids are catching on fast. This upcoming week is verbs.

On Friday we went to eat freshly caught seafood at Furadani Night Market. We have decided to eat here each Friday for as long as we are here. The prices are expensive compared to everywhere else, but so far I've been trying everything I can. My favourite is still octopus, and I've also tried calamari, barracuda, curried lobster and shark which turned out to be my least favourite (it was actually really gross). However, on the plus side for food, today on our way here Tyler and I passes a stall selling burgers, and we immediately ran to the store to devour them. It was the most disgusting and worst-made burger I've ever had, but at that moment they tasted sooo good. I just hope we don't get indigestion or diarrhea from eating them...

On Saturday after classes YCI took us on a tour of a few spice plantations on the northern end of the island. There we saw every kind of spice imaginable, and how each was grown. We were shown so many that I can hardly remember the specifics of each one, but the walk through the jungle and rural roads felt great and took a lot of the stress off of us. Afterwards we were sat down and fed many types of tropical fruit. There was papaya, mango, jackfruit, grapefruit, oranges, pineapple, and about 10 others that I didn't recognize. After this we were taken to a coconut tree where there was a man called Mr. Butterfly waiting for us. What he does for a living is climb palm trees and cut off the coconuts from the top. Simple, except the palm trees are 100 feet high and offer no kind of handhold. Also, Mr. Butterfly is hardcore and a man, and he decided to sing at the top of his lungs, pull stunts, and climb without a lifeline. After all this was done and he had gotten the coconuts from the tree, he shimmied down the tree to the bottom and cut them open so we could drink the milk and eat the fruit inside. Definetely the highlight of my day.

I now have the rest of the day off, and I plan on hanging out with Ali and celebrating Thanksgiving at an Italian restaurant with Tyler and Stephanie. This is about the closest way we can celebrate the holiday in a Western style here in Zanzibar. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Tyler, Stephanie (her hands on the right) and I taking a ride home on the daladala from Mahonda

A rural area where we went for the first time today to teach English and computers known as Mahonda.

Stephanie holding our Aunt's baby

Mama cooking chapate

This is one of the roads leading to our house from the beach.

"Will you take my sister?"........"No."

Hey guys!
Today was my first set of classes. The first was a class at the UMATI Yuoth Centre teaching an Internediate Computer Class. By Intermediate, I mean that so far all that they know how to do with a computer is use Microsoft Word.

When asking the eleven 20-25 year-olds what they wanted to learn about next on the computer, they replied "Microsoft Excel." I said, "does anyone know what the function of Microsoft Excel is?" they replied "no." For the next hour I taught them them what excel was, what it was used for, terms of microsoft excel, and how to navigate around the page all without having a computer. I admit, with the language barrier and this fact put together, I'm not sure how much got across to them, but at elast one person understood; at the end he stood up and re-explained what I had just taught in about 5 minutes. Thursday it happens again.

Tyler and I then headed to a Post Secondary School English Club. The day before Tyler had typed out part of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and made 30 copies of it, or in total 300 pages. When we began teaching (the materiel was supposed to be about good governance, human rights, and the upcoming Zanzibar elections) we realized that many people could not understand us, so there went our lesson plan. However, at the end of this class where we spoke of the elections and what they hoped to learn in the class, there was a lot of positive response from the students since they requested that we double the amount of english sessions to twice a week.

Today a man came up to me at our office and said "take and marry my sister." After a long pause, and me asking him again if he meant what he really meant, I said no. He laughed and walked away. These things happen every day now, I am getting used to happy spontaneous people.

Last night we made some local friends at the nearby Mombassa Supermarket, and we have so far bumped into each other three times in one day. The final time we met, he asked us "Is there anywhere around here to get tested for HIV/AIDS? I have not been tested for a very long time, and it is important that everyone get tested every few months." We told him our partner organization conducted tests, so we went with him and his friend to the center to get tested; the results for both, thankfully, were negative. It goes to show that the message here is spreading, and that people are not only aware of HIV/AIDS, but that people know that there is somewhere for them to go for help.

The three of us have a lecture tomorrow about HIV/AIDS, so we are now looking up additional information to what we already know about the virus on the internet. Along with our partner organization ZANGOC, we are covering stigma, violence, long term effects and prevention.
Tyler is craving a burger for dinner, so we are heading to an American restaurant next.

Kwaheri! Evan

These are some of the kids we are staying with. Yesterday we went to the beach which is right near their house. The family is extremely nice and teaches is lots of new Kiswahili words.


This is our house. As you can see, it's a lot nicer than what we all expected to live in. There are 13 of us living here.

This is a typical busy street in Stone Town, which is the main town of Zanzibar. The streets are very narrow and crowded, and it's easy to get lost.

This is a picture of Stone Town from the water. There were lots of kids playing soccer on the beach when we arrived by ferry.

This is the image I was trying to show yesterday. It's the view from the top of the Safari Inn where we were staying in Dar es Salaam.

Again, sorry for the crappy picture I sent yesterday. Today I'm on a different computer and it seems to work fine.

This is the image I was trying to show yesterday. It's the view from the top of the Safari Inn where we were staying in Dar es Salaam.

First week

Made it to Zanzibar! Stephanie, Tyler and I said goodbye to Michael, Nicole and Melissa as they headed off to Morogoro and we went to Zanzibar. The ferry ride was 2 hours, and the coastline was gorgeous to look at under the setting sun. I fell asleep on the ferry, and woke up just as we entered Stone Town harbour. There were many kids on the beach playing football and doing flips off a pile of sand. Kaiza, Micah, and Shaib, the YCI staff who facilitates and assists us helped us get through immigration, gave us a ride to our new home. The house itself is very big and upscale for Africa, it's actually quite the opposite of what I expected to be living in. The staff said that originally we were scheduled to live in a smaller and less furnished house, but they cancelled at the last minute due to a family matters, so now all three of us are here. The family is absolutely wonderful, they are the nicest people I've ever met. There are 10 of them in this house, and Mama looks after us as if we were her own children. Each day she makes us breakfast and teaches us ne words in Kiswahili. Her youngest son, Ali, is obsessed with us mzungus, or whities, and he trails us wherever we go when we are in the house. Ali is also teaching us Kiswahili, and so far I've learned more of the language in 3 days than I ever learned of French in the last 8 years at school. Each night we go upstairs with him and as he teaches us Kiswahili or play UNO with him (which he and his brother Yehea absolutely live) we watch a movie on their TV, last night was Mortal Kombat.

The YCI staff is making us acquainted with our new surroundings, and we have so far been to their head office, 2 youth centers we will be working with, and Stone Town. So far we have been given orientations about what our projects will be, and tips and scheduling advice. I teach a computer course, and HIV/AIDS Awareness through Arts class, 2 english classes, take part in a secondary school english club, and help organize shows for spreading HIV/AIDS awareness. Yesterday we had a meeting at the UMATI Youth Centre with Kaiza and a few other locals on the Arts program, and there is much to do to get prepared for this event on Tuesday. It is very important that when we teach, our information on HIV/AIDS is clearly understood, since there is only 2 hours to give a ton of materiel to youth who know nothing about the disease. Many believe you can get it simply by eating a meal that an infected person has cooked, others have no idea what the disease is, or believe that it doesn't exist. Also, the topic of condom use is very iffy here since the society is Muslim, and they do not believe that protection should be used. Apparently a political figure brought up the issue a few months ago in a public speech and was later assaulted in his home because of doing so.

The island of Zanzibar is much poorer than the mainland of Tanzania, and many people get by on subsistence living. Buildings are in terrible condition on the outside, and on the inside it is usually not much better. Of course, there are some districts that are richer than others, such as Stone Town, but everywhere there is garbage littering the streets, sidewalks, and fields. Even so, the island is extremely beautiful and I am loving every second of my stay here.

In order to get around the island, the main method of transportation is daladala, which is like a 12 seater van that you pile in as many people as can fit. The cost to go anywhere on the island on one of these is only 250 shilingi, which is basically 25 cents. Tyler, Stephanie and I take these everywhere we go since they are numerous and follow the same routes every day.

Yesterday we went to Stone Town for the first time. Kaiza led us through the maze of narrow streets that have 3, 4 and sometimes 5 story buildings towering above us. The whole time the 3 of us had no idea where we were, but she seemed to know every twist and turn. Apparently Kaiza is an artist, and she showed us her art gallery. All of the paintings were very good, and we we intent on each purchasing one until we found out the price was $250 USD. Hopefully there will be more art.

The food here is delicious, and by going to lunch and seafood markets at night I have so far had ugali (which is a paste that simply fills your stomach, but is not very nutritious), rice with coconut milk, mussels, shrimp, octopus (my favourite) and sugar cane juice. Each morning at ur house we get papaya and fresh oranges, as well as bread and starches. Their daughter, Naila, makes some of the best tea I have ever tasted and we are all searching for the herbs she uses so we can recreate it when we return home.

Today is the first day that the three of us have to ourselves. We plan on getting lost in Stone Town, finding our way out, eating lunch at a local restaurant, then taking Ali and Yehea to the beach. Tomorrow we also have off, but I think it will be spent more working on our projects then on enjoying ourselves.

Miss everyone at home and thinking about you guys! Also sorry about the terrible picture above I tried to upload it but it didn't work for some reason...I'll post them on facebook instead.

Also if you wish to call me, my number is 255787074691, however it is quite expensive plus I'm busy a lot of the time so only call me once a week if you decide to.