Contrasts and choices

Sometimes when the Norwegian students here go to town at night they hire a minibus - dala dala - to take them. The dala dala plays loud music all the way to town. I came along for the first time last week and it was an experience which put me in deep thoughts about the contrasts I'm experiencing here.

Driving through the poor villages playing loud music felt very wrong to me. It felt like we were shouting "everybody look at us, we're the rich white girls!" The people in the village were out with their goats and cows, or sitting outside their clay huts making food on an open fire, and we were going "out" to eat in a fancy pizza restaurant in town - where obviously only white European tourists went.

I prefer "eating out" with the Maasais

Driving through the poor villages, flashing our wealth with Rihanna's music playing loud, and the words to her song streaming out "I want you to make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world.." really emphasised the western selfish extravagant lifestyle wanting everything for ourselves, wanting evryone to treat us like we're the best thing that ever happened to them "..forget about the world.." -sitting in our private western world inside a party bus with so much poverty on the outside.

Out taking pictures of the sunset

Another thing that came to mind, was that the people living in these villages are the people we're here to help. Some of them desperately want to get more education or work. The children we pass might dream about having a safe home, being able to learn and go to school, have a future, not die from HIV or malaria, not get scabies, ringworms and infections and to have enough food to eat. And then the white girls drive past with Rihanna's voice shouting "I want you to make me feel like I'm the only girl in the world".

I felt ashamed. Our fancy lifestyle could easily have paid for these children's education, medical treatments, food etc. It is already so obvious. Everybody knows that we are very rich and privileged compared to them, so it just rubs it in to show off our wealth like that. There are obviously a lot worse things we could've done, but this felt pretty bad to me still. Especially since we were doing it to the very people we will meet in the social projects. What will they think of us?

Clay huts in a village

I met another of these contrasts when I received an email from the local council in Norway where I have recently become an elected member. The email informed me that they want all information and paperwork to be electronic from now on and therefore they are giving everyone and ipad or laptop. Would I want an iPad from them or money to buy one myself? There was also a question about how I'm doing in Tanzania. In my reply I first wrote about Tanzania, the beauty and the extreme social and health problems and poverty. It felt very strange to end the email with " I will take the money and buy an iPad myself, thank you very much". Here are kids who want to go to school, but their family can't afford it, and then someone wants to just give me money or an iPad. It feels very unfair. I will have to think hard about many things and find a way to live my life so that I don't have to feel ashamed about being so privileged.

documenting with my fancy camera

I see a lot of children and youth walking around with shirts from famous European football clubs. It's quite absurd to me that the poor people here care about European football and look up to the superstar professional football players with their insanely high wages and overextravagant lifestyles. The kids here can't even afford to buy a football, but they still admire people who are the pride examples of the unfair wealth distribution which causes their misery. I don't know if it is an escape from reality which can work as a survival strategy, or if it just gives them unrealistic dreams.

Home made football from the village

Kids who just got a new football

It's a bit like what we found during the health checks. The kids seem to be coping well with being hit, abused and neglected because they think it's normal. Would it be wrong of us to tell them that this treatment is wrong, that they deserve better? If we can't offer any improvement, wouldn't we just be taking away their ability to cope with their miserable conditions? It's something we would never have to consider in Norway. On the one hand, I strongly believe that information and enlightenment always is good and right. People should know about the unfair distribution of wealth in the world and that private and governmental corruption in addition is ruining this country and causing poverty and misery. It is wrong that people live in such extreme poverty when other people live with extreme unnecessary overspending. I do believe that if everybody truly knew about the unfairness of this situation, people would want to do something about it. On the other hand, I've started thinking about the way people adapt to their situation to at least secure their mental health. Yes, their situation is extremely unfair, but is it also unfair to take away their coping strategy with of our desire to enlighten them? Will it hurt more than it helps?

Reading a poster about AIDS at the youth centre

It seems to be two potentially conflicting ways of looking at it. One way is looking at individual people's life and how to secure their short term happiness, and another is looking at the bigger picture and starting a process to get lasting long term improvements for larger number of people. The difficult task is to work with both perspectives in mind simultaneously cause they seem to be conflicting. It seems that a revolution-like process is needed to get the drastic improvements that would really make a difference to people's lives here, but it would take a long time and potentially make conditions worse for a while before (if) they eventually got better. When conditions are as bad as they are, it seems like the big improvements that are needed are so out of reach, that maybe it's not even worth trying. Maybe it's only possible to focus on individuals and slow symptom relief instead of attacking the whole unfair system which causes the problems. And maybe it's possible to get lasting improvements by fixing one little problem at the time. It is quite overwhelming to experience how unfair the world is and to feel like I'm a part of what makes it unfair. If I think of a good way of fixing it I will let you know!

I will end with a quote I read today: "There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or to accept the responsibility for changing them.
-Denis Waitley

Kanga and Kitenge

The colours and patterns of the traditional clothes here, Kitenge and Kanga, are exeptional. Kangas are pieces of fabric you tie around your waste or shoulders. They have symbols and a poetic messages written along the bottom edge which women use to show opinions, emotions or comments. They are easy to carry around in your bag if you need to cover your shoulders or knees out of respect for the traditions here. All the girls get a kanga when they arrive at TICC, but we have also bought a few more in town. They are very useful and you can wear them in many different ways. The Kangas below are the ones Amanda and I got at TICC. They are very pretty, but we're not quite sure what the text means.

the kangas we got at TICC

The one below on the other hand is made by TICC as an educational kanga.
"Kuzaa ni furaha kulea na afya ya mama je"  which means pregnancy is a joy when the mother is in good health. Around the outer edge there are healthy fruit and vegetables, in each corner images of breast feeding, health checks, and vaccination. In the inner frame there are smiling condoms, contraceptive pills etc. Mama Ruti (on the right) said that the kanga was a big success and they became vere popular among the women in the village. I thought it really shows how you can get through to people when you make an effort to understand their culture.

Amanda and Mama Ruti (Ruth Nesje) showing the TICC pregnancy kanga

Mzungu price
When white people try to buy something you usually get a much higher price than locals: "Bei ya mzungu" or "mzungu price". Mzungu is the swahili word for western/white people and comes from the word for "walking around with no purpose". I have learned to say "don't give me mzungu price", which is very useful phrase to know. When we were buying kangas in town, Amanda managed to haggle the price down from 32000 Tanzanian Shillings to 25000 for 5 kangas. We knew 5000-6000 was normal price for kangas (about 15 krones/3 dollars).

Our new kangas hanging on the drying line

It was difficult to find kangas with the right text because so many had a religious message. Being an atheist, I can't walk around with a kanga saying "only God knows about the future" etc. I'm very happy with the kangas I ended up buying. The translations are not 100% correct, but you'll get the main point:



"Maskini wa leo tajiri wa kesho" = Poor today rich tomorrow
I thought it would be a nice kanga to wear while working with the youth group. The youth group failed their primary school exam and are therefor not allowed to continue to secondary school. They could go to a private school, but it's too expensive and none of them can afford it. They have little hope for the future and desperately want education or work. We are hoping to help them create a group that can support and motivate each other.

detail from kanga

"Yataka Moyo kuishi na jirani" = The hearts desire is to live well with neighbours
This kanga I thought would be nice to wear when I go to live in the village for a week or two. They are our neighbours and I want to live with them and get to know them. It could be a way of showing my good intentions and that I have understood how to use the kanga to tell people something about myself.

detail from kanga

"Hamsemi yakaisha?" = Don't you have anything more to say?
I was was thinking about wearing this kanga after a week or so in the village if I knew people were talking a lot about me. I would have to wait until I knew people would take it as a joke and not as a negative comment. Hopefully it could be a funny way of saying "I know you're talking about me, and I don't care"

detail from kanga

Amanda chose her kanga solely because of the pattern.
The text on hers is: "Naiwe leo furaha ya harusi" = today is the day for a happy wedding. Not very suitable text, but a very nice pattern and pretty colour.
Amanda told me that guys sometimes give girls kangas as a present to tell them something. Maybe that one could've been used as a proposal, or as a wedding present? Anyway, it looks very pretty!

detail from kanga

Kitenge
Kitenge is the name of a different type of fabric that you buy by the meter, but it is also used about a two piece outfit made from the kitenge fabric. Amanda's aunt in Dar-es-salaam gave me two lovely kitenges.
I also find that it's a nice way to connect with the local people wearing their traditional clothes.

the lovely kitenges I got from Amandas aunt

I get a lot of nice comments from the locals when I wear kanga or kitenge. People here really like it when we speak swahili with them as well. Both with clothes and language, I think people in general really appreciate when you show that you're making an effort, that you're interested in their culture and want to learn their language and take part in their traditions.

Colours (swahili: Rangi)

pretty blue bird with red cheeks

Tanzania is beautiful and colourful. The wildlife here is bursting with colours. Birds are bright blue, red and yellow, crabs and frogs are orange, pink and green. Flowers and trees are beautiful too and the sun is so red when it sets in the evening.

crab with one big colourful claw

Frog who lives in the shower

Sandbank in the sea
A big group from TICC sailed out to a sandbank which is only visible at low tide. The sand was amazingly white and the water around was torquoise. We went snorkling and the plants, coralls and fish were incredibly beautiful. I wish I could've taken photos of them. There were little stripy clown fish hiding in the bright red coralls, bright blue, green, white, red, purple and yellow fish, large star fish of yellow/black, and red/white. There were so many colourful lifeforms living together in such small areas. And the water is so salty you can easily just float around without moving, and lie in the surface and observe all the small fishies swimming around underneath.

lovely sandbank

TICC crew on the sandbank at low tide

Amanda in the red sunset with her Kanga

Normal vs acceptable

We are now conducting a health check for 700 kids at a community primary school. Amanda and I will be part of the follow up for some of the kids so we went to the meeting where the nurses were going through the health check questionaire form. Checking childrens wellbeing is one thing in Norway, and something completely different in Tanzania. If this was Norway, many of the children's health and living conditions would have been of great concern to the child wefare agencies. Setting a new standard for "normal" is difficult but necessary. Among the questions to ask are: do you live with your parents? Are you getting enough food? Many children have lost their parents because of AIDS and many children are seriously malnutritioned. Checking if limbs are in proportion could give an indication of whether or not there's been long term malnutrition. The nurses will also have to check for infected wounds, ring worms, scabies, and be able to recognise signs of malaria. The translators are a very important part of the health checks because they will also have to ask difficult questions like: are you being hit at home or in school? It's also important to ask how far they have to walk to school and if they have shoes.

Health check form

How do you set a standard for what is "normal" "acceptable" and "unacceptable"? Child neglect seems to be normal, beating seems to be normal, but serious abuse is unacceptable. A child with deep infected wounds caused by intentional abuse is unacceptable. Malnutrition and serious - but not life threatning - health issues mainly caused by poverty seems to be close to "normal". Easily curable illnesses like scabies will be addressed at an "under the tree meeting" where Mama Ruti - the director of TICC- will talk about treatment and prevention of scabies. Cause, prevention and treatment is better sanitary conditions and hygiene, and washing with soap - or just washing at all, bodies and clothes. But soap costs money. Water is somtimes too valuable to use for washing. There's hardly enough water to drink. How improve your health if you can't afford the necessary changes?

The health check is a good way to find effective ways to help people. Having more information and documentation is important to show local authorities the health condition of children. Since children can't be responsible for their own health and social conditions, they are in many ways the symptom bearer of the society. After the health check is finished we will know more about which problems we need to prioritise, and it will give us a better idea about the conditions people are living under. Last year's helath check resulted in TICC sponsoring the children with a banana each for lunch every day. It's not a lot, but if no food is the alternative, a banana could really mean a lot. The health checks also result in informationa campaigns in the villages about the most crucial problems and how to discover, prevent and treat them.

Natural medicine
We were talking today about possible solutions. I suggested giving all the children a piece of soap to take home with them. Maybe they could get the oportunity to wash themselves at school? There are also many non expensive ways of improving hygiene and health such as using plants and natural medicines. There are natural antibacterials such as honey and lemon, aloe vera can be used on wounds and burns, salt sea water can be used to clean wounds and infections, there is a tree twig here you can chew which works as a toothbrush. There are herbalist doctors in the villages who have medicines for lots of illnesses (some even show very good results for HIV/AIDS and cancer patients!) The local traditional medicine man came to sell herbal medicine at the centre. Most of the medicine is bark and leaves from trees and you mix one teaspoon in a cup of tea. Most illnesses can be treated with this and there are no bad side effects! I bought 7 different kinds, and I will get probably get more next time. Three types are already available in the cafe. One improves your immune defense, and the two other kill bacterias, infections and fungus. All three together is the cocktail they use for HIV/AIDS patients with good results.

traditional herbal medicine

stocking up on herbs

instructions for berbal medicine

Amanda picking out from the traditional pharmacy