"Poa Kichizi Kama Ndizi!"

         Our first morning in Tanzania we awoke to the sound of a rooster cock-a-doodle-dooing at sun-up. The odd thing about it was that it wasn't daybreak at all, it was about 1:30 a.m. and about 20 minutes after we had finally gotten settled and gone to bed. Constant crowing is one of the many things that we had to get used to in Tanzania. Our lazy 5-minute per day clockin' North American Cocks got nothing on an African Rooster. Those guys work 24-7. In fact, before long it felt eerie if we didn't hear a rooster every 30 seconds, like a canary in a coalmine.

          Day one we were oriented around the bustling town of Moshi by CIDA-sponsored interns. Moshi can be found on the lower slopes of the towering Mt. Kilimanjaro and population-wise is only a little bigger than Kingston. It is home to a number of schools, a little industry and plays as home base for climbers from all over the world who come hoping to bag Africa's highest peak.

Jill contemplating baby theft 

          Something we noticed instantly was the warmth and welcome of the Tanzanian people. Without a doubt, the most memorable part of our time in Tanzania wasn't so much the events as the people we met along the way. Many people on the streets greet you with a warm smile and a kind hello. Some of the Swahili words that actually stuck with us were the many greetings for many situations. The first we learned was “Jambo” which is “Hi!” The response is, as you probably guessed is another "Jambo!" This is a pretty safe greeting for those new to Swahili (i.e. recommended for those who know only "Jambo!") The next step is "Habari (za Asabuhi)!" meaning "How are you (this morning)?" The response would then be “Nzuri!!”... I'm good!! Now, one must be careful asking this as it can often result in a beautiful barrage of smiling Swahili so it is recommended that you either know Swahili or be extremely good at nodding and/or smiling.
          On the job site though, Duncan had better access to Swahili lessons then the Lonely Planet guidebook. The guys taught him all the most important words…“whazzup?”…. “Mambo?!” with the response “Poa!” Or if you were feeling particularly good the response would be "Poa Kichizi Kama Ndizi!" Which, as you probably guessed, means "Crazy cool like a banana!" (Just kidding, who would guess that? If you did guess correctly then you were probably East African in another life. Just a heads up.)

          We also learned about “Shikamoo” which is a greeting reserved for those whom you respect or hold a high regard. By “Shikamoo” you are conveying an admiration and esteem for that person. When we were in the communities, "Shikamooing" the elders, won you a huge toothy (or toothless) smile and the response "Marahaba". After greeting with a stranger and after learning the various ways to say it in Swahili, it opened the doors to learning so much from the wonderful people of this country.

Woman and her child waiting for the doctor

          Our first stop was the local hardware store as we were hoping to get some information about the availability and prices of building materials. The first thing I (Duncan) noticed was a machine-gun armed guard next to the rebar, something that's tough to picture outside of Kingston's Home Depot. We were relieved to find that a lot of the stuff we needed for the build was readily available, something that would become crucial in the first few days of the build. This, thankfully, settled some of our concerns about acquiring materials and hardware for the build.
         As some of our group were buying cell phones I noticed a merchant selling just about everything you could imagine, noticeably some decent looking sunglasses. I had left my better pair at home knowing full well that I tend to lose my glasses more than Waldo and they'd only have a one way ticket on this mission. It had been sometime since I had been in a country where you could barter for merchandise and I was intrigued to get back into it. I asked our intern what he thought was a reasonable price for sunglasses, about 3000 Tanzanian shillings or $2, and headed across the street. The dialogue went something like this:

"Hello my Rafiki!" - Merchant
"Habari za Asabuhi! Can I try your sunglasses?
"Of course Rafiki, which ones do you like?"
"This pair looks pretty good, how much for these?"
"For you... 25,000 Shillings!"
"For me? A bad price for me? How about a good price?"
"How much you wanna pay?"
"500 Shillings"
"Rafiki! These are the best! Okay, today special price... 20,000"
"That's the Mzungo price! Okay, 1000 Shilling seems fair."
"Alright, alright. 15,000 Shillings! Good price for me, good price for you!"

       You can imagine how it went from there and eventually we settled on a price of 5000 shillings or $3.50 CDN. I guarantee we were both walking away from that thinking "hahaha, sucker...", though I soon realized who would get the last laugh. About 3 days later I started to noticed little cracks in the frames in a few locations. Throughout that day, which was the first time that I had worn them consistently in the sun, I noticed they were getting larger and more frequent. Finally, I took them off to look at them as they, almost literally, disintegrating in my hands. "What the hell are these made of?" I thought. As they disintegrating in my hands we were visiting a Maasai village as part of our weekend Safari and as I looked at the dung houses they'd built I wondered... 'Are they made of Clay? Dirt? Worse? These sunglasses were, maybe literally, made of shit.' I had to laugh. Had I known that they had restrictions I may have been a little less surprised. A heads-up maybe? A simple "Warning: Do not subject sunglasses to direct or reflected sunlight at any time or disintegration/vaporization may occur" would have sufficed. Hey, we've all spent a few bucks on much worse, I'm just glad I didn't pay 20.

         After our orientation the whole group met at the current PTE Women's Centre where the medical caravan was getting oriented for the next two weeks or Caravans. Meanwhile, the builders were anxious to get the first glimpse of the site and find out what we were in for. A rough plan sketch and a few pictures had given us some idea of the tasks ahead though you never really know until you get there. These are the first shots we got of the site and we knew we had our work cut out for us.

Looking East

 

Looking Northeast

Looking, uh, East, East-South-East, South-East, South-South-East and South

    
          

PARTING SHOT

Supposedly the female Vervet Monkeys are really big teases.

In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro - Our Arrival

            "All I know is that every time I go to Africa, I'm shaken to my core."

-   Stephen Lewis, former Canadian UN Ambassador and UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa 
    

Mount Kilimanjaro - The view on the commute to work for the Building Crew

           We were watching TV today and Mike Holmes came on in a charity commercial asking us to sponsor African children and I had to rethink my typical thought process on these commercials. These commercials are always different people saying the same thing... "For a dollar a day...". Every day, we hear about places that need our help or money. Earthquakes in Haiti, Aids in Africa, Floods in Pakistan, Tsunamis in Indonesia, there's always somewhere to donate. It's tough to watch, we feel helpless, we can't afford to donate to everything so often we bury it and we carry on. At least I often do. I encourage anyone who's ever thought about going on a mission like this for a couple of weeks or months, to do so. I'm fairly certain we're not the first to say that everything we put into this we got out times fifteen hundred. I know because our dollar is worth about 1500 Tanzanian shillings. If there's one thing I miss it's getting a bank statement showing a balance in the millions. It was worth it even for that.

                                                 "Mambo!" ~ What's up!
                                                 "Poa!"       ~ I'm cool!


           We arrived from Amsterdam at about 9:30 at night on Sunday January 9th and were ready to get rolling. We both had the same feeling coming into our project though for different reasons. Jill was anxious to get started and didn't know entirely what to expect while I was concerned with the schedule and how little we knew going in. Though we had sent a number of emails asking about the project to learn about local materials, site conditions, labour, tools, building practices and standards, we knew only the dimensions and rough layout of the structure we would be building before our arrival. To be honest, I was concerned that with all the fundraising we'd done, we wouldn't be able to accomplish enough with the time frame we had. We were carrying not only our personal sacrifices, but the contributions of over a hundred people who had donated to our cause and we put the pressure on ourselves to everything we could while we were there.
           The Pamoja Tunaweza (Together We Can) Women's Centre provides support for women in the Kilimanjaro region who suffer from poverty, gender based violence and often are affected by HIV/AIDS. (See top right for more info).
          They're currently operating out of a place that they're renting for a reduced but not insignificant rate and anyone who, like ourselves, is or has ever paid rent on someone's elses mortgage can understand the reason for the new self-owned and operated Women's Centre. Especially in a situation like this when every dollar counts. So CACHA made a good business decision and bought some property in Moshi with a smaller structure but area to expand in hopes to smoothly transition over in April. Our goal was to being this expansion by building a Pavilion-style daycare area with a polished concrete floor and an A-framed roof. Here's what we knew going in:

- 22 feet x 24 feet are
- Open air structure with a roof
- Polished concrete floor 
- 2 foot high wall to prevent baby-escapes
- That's it.

         Arriving in Africa for the first time at night-time is like going to the Superbowl with a blindfold on. Our anticipation had been building for the trip since this had become a reality, thanks to many of you, and we were ready to dive in. The 45 minute bus ride took us to the Guest House where we would be staying in a room with my folks, summer camp bunk-bed style. We had mosquito nets and a manual fan (i.e. works if you spin it) as a power surge had blown it out. Jill and I graciously accepted the top bunk as after all those Grinds climbing up didn't seem that bad.  Also, we had a bathroom I liked to call the 'Double-Tasker'; a result of the toilet being located directly over the shower. We knew we'd gotten ourselves into something a little deeper than the usual. We loved it and were ready to jump in.

              "Shake it up baby" - The Beatles

 Next Chapter: Hard Barders, Disintegrating Sunglasses, Hundred Greeting Days, Shovel Ceremony and the first Caravan!

Dunc checks to see if it's break time yet.

Asante Sana!!

To Our Supporters: ASANTE SANA!!

No Jill, you can't keep them.

           Asante Sana (Thank you so much). We're back in Vancouver and it's if nothing has changed; this couldn't be further from the truth. For many people in Tanzania, thanks to you, everything has changed. We're talking about real people with real issues, who with your help have less to worry about today than they did yesterday. The work crew, including Duncan, Monty and even Jill one day, has (mostly) assembled a new daycare area for the Prevention through Empowerment Women's centre which they'll move into come April. The Medical Caravan saw close to 2000 patients which wouldn't have been possible had they been without Jill, Monty, Connie and all the logistics personnel to keep everything moving in the controlled chaos. The Tanzanian patients range from those who are there for a routine check-up to those who may not have lived another week without the care and treatment that the Caravan provided. People of all ages who have never had the opportunity to have their eyes tested get to put on a pair of glasses and walk away in awe with the ability to see clearly for the first time in their lives. Women who come in with their children to get HIV tests for either the reassurance that they're healthy or for the crucial counseling and Antiretroviral medication that can allow them to lead a long and healthy life. Doctors diagnose, Pharmacists distribute medicine and at that moment their lives change for the better. Thanks to you. So.... Asante Sana!

The Crew: Roman, Paul, Brian, Jeff, Yasini, Daudi, Dunc, Kassim, Monty, Naiman and Peter

         As you can probably imagine, we have some amazing stories to tell; disintegrating sunglasses, Cheetah-Wildebeest takedowns, toothless smiles, Swahili lessons, dust soccer, Tanzanian construction practices, wormbutts, heart-warming, bone-chilling, hard-bardering, dust-eating, warm-beer drinking stories... so stay tuned. We decided that the best way to do that is to write a few blog entries over the next little while to share with you our challenges, successes, lessons and laughs from our experience as there's no way we could have done any of it without the strong support we had from all of you. Whether you contributed to our cause, wished us well or are just reading our entries we thank you for supporting us and know that you've made a difference in thousands of real lives in Tanzania.