The view from the new building being constructed at KCMC
The third bracelet
Kilimanjaro.....
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Infrastructure - Or lack there of
I’m beginning to feel more at home in my homestay and in Moshi. Although I am still receiving a lot of stares while walking to class, I receive a lot of friendly greetings. However, I will not begin to let my guard down.
Not a huge amount has happened since my last post. My group members and I have started to develop our own case study that we will examine throughout the next three weeks. We have chosen the topic of “Health & Body Image” in Tanzania and will focus on the social conceptions of body image, as well as creating recommendations that will encourage healthier consumption choices.
Traveling into the central town of Moshi, my fellow white students and I receive a lot of attention from the street peddlers. Waving strands of beaded bracelets and necklaces, they continually say that they will give you a “great price” for their items. Last Friday, we all went to the city and I bought a small bracelet from a young Tanzanian who brought me into his shop to show me his paintings.
While waiting for a daladala (crowded van that serves as public transportation) ride back toward the hospital / our classroom, another street peddler tried to entice me into buying another bracelet. Beginning to tell him that I already had one, I thought it’d be interesting to see if I could trade him. I wasn’t extremely interested in the bracelet I currently had and looking back I think the trade worked out in my favor.
I have now developed a game that I play with the local peddlers. It involves trying to see how often I can trade for a new bracelet without spending any money. Today in town I managed to trade for a new one which is made entirely of coffee beans. I have posted a picture of it on this blog. It is my third bracelet thus far. The second one had coffee beans and yellow, black, and blue beads, while the first was slightly thicker and had red, green and yellow smaller beads and large pink beads. Not my favorite. I’ll try to take a picture of every bracelet I acquire. Hopefully this game will add some enjoyment to the tiring act of dealing with the street vendors.
Also, I finally found a gym in Moshi. After class this Monday, I ran to the Agme Lodge with Brenna and Chelsea and we signed up for a monthly membership to a fairly small gym. I wasn’t really concerned about the equipment, as I was simply happy to have some weights to swell with.
Over the course of my trip, one thing that has come to my attention is the infrastructure of Tanzania. Turning from a popular street to a side road, the ground turns from tarmac to compacted dirt and rock. The prevalence of rock creates very bumpy car rides and unhappy joints during runs. This lack of infrastructure also creates economic difficulties that businesses can not afford.
This past Saturday, I went on a tour of traditional Chagga culture with Professor Moseley and the other Cornell students. There had been a few light showers early that morning, creating a thin layer of mud on the unpaved roads. While taking a rented bus to the tour location, the bus got stuck in the mud, tires spinning, sliding centimeters at a time down the slope. At one point, I stepped out of the bus to help a group of local men push the automobile up the hill. To avoid an additional delay to our trip, we ended up walking to the tour location.
If the roads and other infrastructural issues on the way to the tour location were addressed, it would definitely increase the amount of tourism that could reach the remote location. Also, it would make the local coffee growers in these areas more accessible to coffee traders, thus promoting the general economy.
Along with the dirt roads throughout Moshi, I have noticed a lot of trash scattered throughout the streets and walkways. Where does all this trash end up? Probably in the drinking water and crops that lie within meters of the trash piles. If sanitation practices of this area were increased, it would help to relieve the health demand on the local health workers as well as possibly increase the agricultural yield of the local farms.
I think I mentioned this in my last post, but at the beginning of my trip I began reading “Mountains beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder. The book is about the life of the famous Paul Farmer, founder of Partners In Health. Dr. Farmer has his M.D. as well as his PhD in anthropology and spent a majority of his undergraduate and graduate life in Cange, Haiti working to promote the health of the towns’ inhabitants. The author states that Dr. Farmer continually expressed how easily the town could be improved if it had adequate infrastructure, such as paved roads, running water or sanitation. An entire town can be revitalized with simple improvements in infrastructure. I guess these issues are potential projects that I can work on if I return to the Moshi area.
Not a huge amount has happened since my last post. My group members and I have started to develop our own case study that we will examine throughout the next three weeks. We have chosen the topic of “Health & Body Image” in Tanzania and will focus on the social conceptions of body image, as well as creating recommendations that will encourage healthier consumption choices.
Traveling into the central town of Moshi, my fellow white students and I receive a lot of attention from the street peddlers. Waving strands of beaded bracelets and necklaces, they continually say that they will give you a “great price” for their items. Last Friday, we all went to the city and I bought a small bracelet from a young Tanzanian who brought me into his shop to show me his paintings.
While waiting for a daladala (crowded van that serves as public transportation) ride back toward the hospital / our classroom, another street peddler tried to entice me into buying another bracelet. Beginning to tell him that I already had one, I thought it’d be interesting to see if I could trade him. I wasn’t extremely interested in the bracelet I currently had and looking back I think the trade worked out in my favor.
I have now developed a game that I play with the local peddlers. It involves trying to see how often I can trade for a new bracelet without spending any money. Today in town I managed to trade for a new one which is made entirely of coffee beans. I have posted a picture of it on this blog. It is my third bracelet thus far. The second one had coffee beans and yellow, black, and blue beads, while the first was slightly thicker and had red, green and yellow smaller beads and large pink beads. Not my favorite. I’ll try to take a picture of every bracelet I acquire. Hopefully this game will add some enjoyment to the tiring act of dealing with the street vendors.
Also, I finally found a gym in Moshi. After class this Monday, I ran to the Agme Lodge with Brenna and Chelsea and we signed up for a monthly membership to a fairly small gym. I wasn’t really concerned about the equipment, as I was simply happy to have some weights to swell with.
Over the course of my trip, one thing that has come to my attention is the infrastructure of Tanzania. Turning from a popular street to a side road, the ground turns from tarmac to compacted dirt and rock. The prevalence of rock creates very bumpy car rides and unhappy joints during runs. This lack of infrastructure also creates economic difficulties that businesses can not afford.
This past Saturday, I went on a tour of traditional Chagga culture with Professor Moseley and the other Cornell students. There had been a few light showers early that morning, creating a thin layer of mud on the unpaved roads. While taking a rented bus to the tour location, the bus got stuck in the mud, tires spinning, sliding centimeters at a time down the slope. At one point, I stepped out of the bus to help a group of local men push the automobile up the hill. To avoid an additional delay to our trip, we ended up walking to the tour location.
If the roads and other infrastructural issues on the way to the tour location were addressed, it would definitely increase the amount of tourism that could reach the remote location. Also, it would make the local coffee growers in these areas more accessible to coffee traders, thus promoting the general economy.
Along with the dirt roads throughout Moshi, I have noticed a lot of trash scattered throughout the streets and walkways. Where does all this trash end up? Probably in the drinking water and crops that lie within meters of the trash piles. If sanitation practices of this area were increased, it would help to relieve the health demand on the local health workers as well as possibly increase the agricultural yield of the local farms.
I think I mentioned this in my last post, but at the beginning of my trip I began reading “Mountains beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder. The book is about the life of the famous Paul Farmer, founder of Partners In Health. Dr. Farmer has his M.D. as well as his PhD in anthropology and spent a majority of his undergraduate and graduate life in Cange, Haiti working to promote the health of the towns’ inhabitants. The author states that Dr. Farmer continually expressed how easily the town could be improved if it had adequate infrastructure, such as paved roads, running water or sanitation. An entire town can be revitalized with simple improvements in infrastructure. I guess these issues are potential projects that I can work on if I return to the Moshi area.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
And so it begins....
Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog of my summer trip to Moshi, Tanzania. As we say in Kiswahili, karibu! First of all, I have very spotty internet so I will try to post entries when I can.
So briefly, what has happened so far: the flight over from Atlanta was fairly uneventful. The first leg was easy and I met up with my fellow Cornell students at the Amsterdam airport. To relieve some tension, Brenna, Rosie and I grabbed a culturally appropriate Heineken at one of the bars in the airport. The second leg was also uneventful, although I did sleep for a little.
The first night in Tanzania, we stayed at a hotel that had a hot shower. My last hot shower for probably a while. The next day, we had a brief orientation meeting at Professor Stoltzfus’s house, our contact while in Moshi. Later that night, we were brought to our host families.
I wasn’t really given any information about my host family before the orientation, apart from the family structure. The family consisted of two parents and two kids. The older child, Catherine, or Katie, is six and the younger child, Lincoln is one. The father, Bwana Theophile, is the head guide at the tourism company that leads climbs up Kilimanjaro, and the mother, Mama Catherine, is a personal assistant for a business man in town.
When I first arrived at Mama Catherine and Baba Theophile’s house, Baba Theophile was leading a group of English girls up Kili so it was just Mama Catherine, myself and the kids. It was a little awkward at first, especially when she asked me in very fast Kiswahili if I spoke any of the native language, only to reply with “kidogo” or “a little”. She chuckled at my response and began to cook dinner. Apart from Bwana Theophile, or maybe equal to, I have had the most contact with Katie, the six year old. She was hesitant at first to talk to me, but now she rambles off to me in Swahili. I think my gift of Jenga really broke the ice.
The next day began the first day of the Cornell and KCMC (Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College) class. The morning consisted of general information and many introductions. The Americans and Tanzanians were commingled and placed into teams to work on policy recommendations for the case studies we were assigned to read before the start of class. Information about the class was also not given before the trip, although now I know it focuses on a wide range of policy issues that are affecting most of the sub-Saharan African countries at a multitude of levels.
Today, Honest, Patricia (two of the Tanzanians) Danielle, Chelsea and I presented our policy recommendations for the HIV/AIDS, Food Insecurity, and Gender Issues case study. While working on this presentation, a lot of interesting sub-Saharan African gender role issues were brought up, like the castration of women, or the cultural acceptability for women to not have a choice when it comes to sex. For the rest of this entry, I thought it’d be interesting to look at the gender rolls in my host family, and in the Moshi environment that I have seen so far.
During the first night with my host family, Lincoln was crying and causing a fuss. To quench his tantrum, Mama Catherine began breastfeeding him on the couch within three feet of me. In America, it would be very uncommon for a mother to breastfeed her child directly in front of a man that she had just been introduced to.
In contrast to this outward display of the bosom region, the Tanzanian culture is very conservative when it comes to the revelation of the upper leg area. While playing Jenga with Katie, her skirt rose maybe a few centimeters above her knee and Mama Catherine gave a strict demand to lower her skirt. This issue of the woman’s upper leg also came up when the girls in the group wanted to run and were concerned about wearing gym shorts because the were cut above their knees. However, Prof. Stolzfus told us that running has become more acceptable and it would be fine for these girls to wear the shorts as long as they are running.
Another gender observation came about during meals with the host family. Mama Catherine does all of the cooking and cleaning while Bwana Theophile sits and waits for his meal and doesn’t clean. This is not entirely different from American culture, as there are many households in the U.S. where the mother does all of the cooking and cleaning.
This morning, May 28th, I did see an exception to this gender division. For the past few days, Bwana Theophile has stated that I should gather my laundry soon. Last night I placed my really dirty clothes into a bag and placed them in a designated corner of the living room. From past experiences at Tanzanian homes, I have seen all completely feminine house help. Based on these observations, I suspected that the individual doing my laundry would be a female. To my surprise, and to your assumptions based on my introduction, the individual doing my laundry as I left for school was a male. I would assume that his socioeconomic status is forcing him to perform tasks that would otherwise be performed by a female. I’ll have to make some more observations on this issue as my time in Tanzania continues.
So other interesting observations so far:
- Tanzanians don’t eat dessert, at least from what I can tell. There is usually a small piece of fruit with dinner but that is all.
- There are earthquakes in Tanzania. We felt a small tremor about 2 nights ago. I thought someone was shaking my bed in the middle of the night only to find out it was an earthquake.
- Most of the people I see on the street are very friendly. As opposed to other developing nations, such as those in South America, that make cat calls to girls, the girls in my group of many different skin tones have been more or less respected.
- Food is cheap. Lunch is about a dollar a day for a large plate of spiced rice with beef, and soup made out of coconut milk and tomato juice.
- Soda is very popular. I would guess that 85 – 90 percent of the locals I see eating are drinking soda, predominately coke.
- Tanzanians like to play music in the morning when they wake up. This morning I was woken up by an unfamiliar song around 5:30.
- The water in Moshi isn’t that bad. I’m brushing my teeth with the tap water but am using my SteriPen for the drinking water.
- No ice. I knew this would be the case but a glass of ice water would be awesome.
- Alcohol is very prevalent. I was given the opportunity to try a traditional Chagga home brew the second day in Moshi, right before I was taken to my host family. It was made from Bananas and Millet, and was actually quite good.
So briefly, what has happened so far: the flight over from Atlanta was fairly uneventful. The first leg was easy and I met up with my fellow Cornell students at the Amsterdam airport. To relieve some tension, Brenna, Rosie and I grabbed a culturally appropriate Heineken at one of the bars in the airport. The second leg was also uneventful, although I did sleep for a little.
The first night in Tanzania, we stayed at a hotel that had a hot shower. My last hot shower for probably a while. The next day, we had a brief orientation meeting at Professor Stoltzfus’s house, our contact while in Moshi. Later that night, we were brought to our host families.
I wasn’t really given any information about my host family before the orientation, apart from the family structure. The family consisted of two parents and two kids. The older child, Catherine, or Katie, is six and the younger child, Lincoln is one. The father, Bwana Theophile, is the head guide at the tourism company that leads climbs up Kilimanjaro, and the mother, Mama Catherine, is a personal assistant for a business man in town.
When I first arrived at Mama Catherine and Baba Theophile’s house, Baba Theophile was leading a group of English girls up Kili so it was just Mama Catherine, myself and the kids. It was a little awkward at first, especially when she asked me in very fast Kiswahili if I spoke any of the native language, only to reply with “kidogo” or “a little”. She chuckled at my response and began to cook dinner. Apart from Bwana Theophile, or maybe equal to, I have had the most contact with Katie, the six year old. She was hesitant at first to talk to me, but now she rambles off to me in Swahili. I think my gift of Jenga really broke the ice.
The next day began the first day of the Cornell and KCMC (Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College) class. The morning consisted of general information and many introductions. The Americans and Tanzanians were commingled and placed into teams to work on policy recommendations for the case studies we were assigned to read before the start of class. Information about the class was also not given before the trip, although now I know it focuses on a wide range of policy issues that are affecting most of the sub-Saharan African countries at a multitude of levels.
Today, Honest, Patricia (two of the Tanzanians) Danielle, Chelsea and I presented our policy recommendations for the HIV/AIDS, Food Insecurity, and Gender Issues case study. While working on this presentation, a lot of interesting sub-Saharan African gender role issues were brought up, like the castration of women, or the cultural acceptability for women to not have a choice when it comes to sex. For the rest of this entry, I thought it’d be interesting to look at the gender rolls in my host family, and in the Moshi environment that I have seen so far.
During the first night with my host family, Lincoln was crying and causing a fuss. To quench his tantrum, Mama Catherine began breastfeeding him on the couch within three feet of me. In America, it would be very uncommon for a mother to breastfeed her child directly in front of a man that she had just been introduced to.
In contrast to this outward display of the bosom region, the Tanzanian culture is very conservative when it comes to the revelation of the upper leg area. While playing Jenga with Katie, her skirt rose maybe a few centimeters above her knee and Mama Catherine gave a strict demand to lower her skirt. This issue of the woman’s upper leg also came up when the girls in the group wanted to run and were concerned about wearing gym shorts because the were cut above their knees. However, Prof. Stolzfus told us that running has become more acceptable and it would be fine for these girls to wear the shorts as long as they are running.
Another gender observation came about during meals with the host family. Mama Catherine does all of the cooking and cleaning while Bwana Theophile sits and waits for his meal and doesn’t clean. This is not entirely different from American culture, as there are many households in the U.S. where the mother does all of the cooking and cleaning.
This morning, May 28th, I did see an exception to this gender division. For the past few days, Bwana Theophile has stated that I should gather my laundry soon. Last night I placed my really dirty clothes into a bag and placed them in a designated corner of the living room. From past experiences at Tanzanian homes, I have seen all completely feminine house help. Based on these observations, I suspected that the individual doing my laundry would be a female. To my surprise, and to your assumptions based on my introduction, the individual doing my laundry as I left for school was a male. I would assume that his socioeconomic status is forcing him to perform tasks that would otherwise be performed by a female. I’ll have to make some more observations on this issue as my time in Tanzania continues.
So other interesting observations so far:
- Tanzanians don’t eat dessert, at least from what I can tell. There is usually a small piece of fruit with dinner but that is all.
- There are earthquakes in Tanzania. We felt a small tremor about 2 nights ago. I thought someone was shaking my bed in the middle of the night only to find out it was an earthquake.
- Most of the people I see on the street are very friendly. As opposed to other developing nations, such as those in South America, that make cat calls to girls, the girls in my group of many different skin tones have been more or less respected.
- Food is cheap. Lunch is about a dollar a day for a large plate of spiced rice with beef, and soup made out of coconut milk and tomato juice.
- Soda is very popular. I would guess that 85 – 90 percent of the locals I see eating are drinking soda, predominately coke.
- Tanzanians like to play music in the morning when they wake up. This morning I was woken up by an unfamiliar song around 5:30.
- The water in Moshi isn’t that bad. I’m brushing my teeth with the tap water but am using my SteriPen for the drinking water.
- No ice. I knew this would be the case but a glass of ice water would be awesome.
- Alcohol is very prevalent. I was given the opportunity to try a traditional Chagga home brew the second day in Moshi, right before I was taken to my host family. It was made from Bananas and Millet, and was actually quite good.
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