First World Pleasures in the Developing World

Did I tell you Mwanza got a new bakery in town?

 
Oh, yeah!

And it's gooooOOOOOd. I'm also happy to announce that the chocolate glazed doughnut is pretty good too. I ate that one too fast this afternoon and didn't get a picture. Maybe next time, people.

Real Mass

Chris and I went to a 3 1/2 hour Mass in Swahili today. How's, that for devotion, huh? Well, I don't know about that actually but it sure sounds good. Or crazy. The parish was having 74 baptisms and 91 first communions this morning. In the past we've gone to a different Mass because we know how long these services can take but we decided to bite the bullet and go see what it was about.

I have to say, it was quite enjoyable. I didn't take any pictures because we were way up in the back of the church, outside actually, and it wouldn't have really shown anything. But it was neat, for sure. The girls were all dressed in fancy, frilly white wedding-ish gowns (which I always find kinda creepy, even in the States). Most of the people who got confirmed or baptized were middle school-age-ish. And it was all quite a celebration. After each child was baptized he/she stood in front of the church waving and everyone in the congregation raised and waved their hands and kigelegeled (made that ululating sound with their tongues). Everyone afterwards were taking pictures and it was just very joyous. We even got asked to be in a picture with two cute girls.

All in all, I'm glad we went to that Mass today. It felt like an important thing to do as part of the community and it was neat to be a part of the cultural event. (Though also, now next time I won't feel so bad if we skip the long Mass and go to the shorter one. ;)

Office Assistant

I'm doing some work at home this afternoon and since it's so hot I thought I might try to work outside under our little covered sitting area*. I learned two things from this, the afternoon sun is too hot and too strong to be deterred by the little bamboo covering. And, Smokey LOVES it when I work outside, which I guess technically is her office.



It was too much for me, so I had to move back inside. That didn't deter my little office helper though.




*which is affectionately called "The Embassy."

Adventure Weekend

One of the promises I made myself in this new year was that Chris and I were going to get out and do more fun things. We have a tendency to get in ruts and not do anything different or not get away from the humdrum of daily life.

So this weekend I was really happy when I came home from work on Saturday afternoon and Chris suggested we go out to lunch. We never go out to lunch! We had heard of a new fast food restaurant in town so we decided to check it out. Mwanza has no lack of restaurants, but all the restaurants have the same kinds of food, either Tanzanian (ugali, rice, meat, fish, veggies) or Western (pizza, burger, pasta). The new fast food place doesn’t have anything that’s way too different (mostly chicken), but I got the chicken shwarma wrap and it was good! I just like anything wrapped up in a tortilla-like thing. And this had french-fries and coleslaw inside the wrap. Even better!

After lunch we went over to the new bakery in town and it was AMAZING! I wish I’d taken pictures, but I’ll definitely go back, so I can do it then. They had both Tanzanian and Western treats including doughnuts, croissants, mendazi, samosas, cake, cookies, and bread. We went a little overboard and got a huge cookie, a doughnut and a slice of carrot cake as big as my head! We took our horde home and shared them. The doughnut was by far the best thing we tasted. I feared it would just taste like the same old bread they have here. But it was so good. Light and fluffy, fried to a nice crisp and the cream was amazing. Afterwards I was so sick to my stomach I had to take a nap to sleep my sugar hangover off!

Our other adventure for the week was on Sunday. The 5 lay missioners in Mwanza headed about an hour out of town to try a restaurant we’d heard mention of. It’s a place right on the lake and it serves western food and steak. 

 

The profits from the restaurant go toward two schools and an orphan program. We discovered that the founder and Executive Director is a fellow alumnus with me (NYU’s social work program). He’s younger than me and has been here 7 years already. Yes, it made me feel a little inadequate but it also inspired me to keep working and great things can happen. The place was very relaxing and the food was good. It was a great adventure and I definitely think we’ll be going back there again!

Tembelea

Just returned from a nice visit with some new friends. I'll tell you what, Tanzanian's know how to welcome people. We Westerners could learn a thing or two. They cooked us a wonderful meal, served us drinks and cookies, and Bibi Nancy even gave me 2 different fabrics to make a dress. Really nice folks.

In "Case" You're Keeping Track

Tanzanian Court System: around 5 (I've lost track of exactly how many times we've gone)
Reids: 0

Here's the pattern thus far of our court case from the robbery in July.

October sometime: This was our first court hearing and it was rescheduled for November 7 or sometime around there.

November 7(ish): rescheduled for December 6

December 6: rescheduled for December 21

December 21st: rescheduled for January 10

Today, January 10: rescheduled for January 24th (even though it's a public holiday and the court will be closed)

Each time we go to the court we spend about 2-3 hours waiting outside for our name to be called. Then we go in, along with the investigator who is pressing charges (if he shows up) and the accused robber. They talk for a minute or two and for one reason or another they reschedule the court case. The reasons thus far have been: too many cases for the day, the investigator isn't there, the translator isn't there, the judge isn't there.

Next time I propose that we're not there.

Epiphany

I just realized that today is Epiphany. And we skipped Church. I don't like skipping Church on a regular day, but I like even less on special days like this. But we're having a purely Tanzanian issue right now. With all the rains we've been having, our bridge is out of commission. Unless, of course, you feel comfortable driving over jagged rocks precariously piled on top of rebar as the only thing between you and the gushing creek below. Call me a worrier, but that's not really the way I want to go. We've found another rout, but there's this one puddle that I have to drive through and it's about as deep as I think is advisable before you start doing some damage to the car*. Well, last night we got some more rains and both Chris and I were a little nervous to head out not knowing the current state of the bridge** nor how much deeper the puddle is. So we made the decision to stick to home this morning and explore on foot to see if we can find some other alternate paths.

So, long story-short, we just finished a walk (abruptly interrupted by rain) and found another route that I think will hold out for as long as these rains continue. But we still missed Church. So, happy Epiphany, everybody.


*On that same road earlier in the week, while transporting a new missioner, I made a bad mistake and got stuck on a rock in a puddle, stalled, restarted the car and backed up, dragging the big rock with us. That little mistake caused 370,000 Tshillings worth of damage (around $240).

**Guys in the neighborhood on a daily basis will go out there and pile smaller rocks, dirt and grass on it. But then it'll rain and it all gets washed away again.

Happy New Years 2013

I don't have any reflective or thoughtful messages about the ending of one year and the beginning of another. We've had our ups and downs this year, for sure. But I can honestly say that at this moment I feel really good. I'm excited about 2013. We've got a lot to look forward to and I hope we'll be more confident and competent to accomplish more work-wise here in Tanzania.

To ring in the New Year last night we had a little gathering at our place with the newly-expanded MK community, having just welcomed 2 new lay missioners on the 30th. It was no "Reid Annual Christmas Party" but pretty close and we all enjoyed good food and good company.






Mark and David welcoming Veronica, one of the new missioners.


Fr. Jim and new missioner Rich get acquainted.

After spending the morning in Church and after a rainstorm, we made our way back home to find that the bridge leading to our street was overflowing with water.




Yeah, this is a bridge.

This is the main way to get to our house and we didn't know if the other ways would be overflowing too. So we just waited it out until the water was low enough for us to walk across.


I had new shoes on so like a Tanzanian, I just took my shoes off and walked the rest of the way home barefoot. Here's hoping I don't start 2013 with worms!

An End to the Holidays

The holidays are over and we're immediately back to reality.



We hope to get the painting done today so we can clean and move the furniture back in. We have someone coming to stay with us for a week starting Sunday and are also having a New Year's party on Monday. So we've got a deadline! Then we can jump back into the rest of holiday spirit. To keep that momentum going, here's a video of our Christmas sleigh ride to Musoma last week:

Merry Christmas

Chris's Birthday

We had a great day yesterday for Chris's birthday, celebrating in a very different way. We are in Musoma for a brief pre-holiday visit and managed to coincide it with the annual shopping spree with the kids from Lisa's Pride. Taking 25 children living with HIV/AIDS shopping in the market was certainly an experience! We had a great time.

They each had 25,000 shillings (about $15 US) to spend as they wished. I was in a group with 4 girls ages about 12 years. They each bought brand new dresses with little coverups and used shoes. After the shopping we shared a meal and because it was Chris's birthday we brought a cake and sang happy birthday. What a great day!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot (?) Like Christmas

I haven't made my usual assortment of cookies this year, but I've managed to get a few done.


My cookie cutters are dogs, seals, fish and (of course) lions. So ask me someday to tell you about the Christmas and Hanukah stories that involve these animal. Have you heard about how the seals originally had the idea to light the lamps at Hanukah? Or how lions help to keep the elves regulated and working at a quick pace? True.


I had to use some mangos so tried out these cookies. Meh...


Old tried-and-true.


The annual Fortes Christmas party lived up to the hype. Open bar. Great food. Total Christmas ambiance. Wish we could fast-forward to next year's already.


Chris approved.

I'd much rather think of all these Christmasy things than what our house looks like right now.

Wood paneling removed (and sitting for 3 days waiting for someone to come collect it!) and cement cleaned up a bit. Next is to paint, though I can't imagine how many coats it'll need to actually absorb and look semi-clean. Fa la la la la la la la la.

And So It Begins

With all the bugs and such I've not had too much time to tackle these mangos. But I've gotten a good start.


And so it begins.


Making puree.


What does Chris think about all this mango? "It's alright," he says.

I forgot to take a picture of this because I was so mangoed-up and sticky, but I also made this. I had to doctor it up a bit African-style (used pepitas instead of cashews, a chinese-type cabbage similar to bok choy, and green pepper instead of red). It was really good though. I'll definitely it make again. Maybe even tonight.

Third World Problems... Again

I don't think that I've mentioned our recent bug problems on this space. Chris has talked about it on Facebook and he put up some pictures and a video, but I think I've been too busy being stressed about mangos. This is a reincarnation of the bugs that visited us back in October, which you might've heard about already. Long story-short, for a few days in October and then again this month, we've had termite-like bugs swarming out of our wood-paneled walls in the evenings. The bugs are relatively harmless (well, except that they eat through wood and have ruined the walls) but it's quite a nuisance and messy and destroying the house. In October the bugs came for 2 days and then that was it. So we didn't really do anything about it. This time it's going on 5 days and the number of bugs have been increasing each time. Last night we noticed that the bugs are flying out and then burrowing into the walls in another spot.

Here's what I'm talking about:


We've been trying to get the landlord to take care of the problem but as we saw the situation getting worse every night we decided to take action. Today we've had an exterminator spray the room and the perimeter of the house and this weekend we're having the paneling ripped out. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully this will be the end of our shida ya wadudu (bug problem)!

International Human Rights Day

December 10^th is International Human Rights Day. It also marks the end of a two week campaign called 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), which started on November 25^th, International Day Against Violence Against Women.  This 16-day period was started as an international campaign by the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership in 1991. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights issue, strengthen local work on GBV around the globe, link local and international GBV work, and other key issues targeting local and international GBV work.

Before moving to Tanzania I worked as a community educator in the field of violence against women. Through this work I became very close to these issues and developed a passion for the field specific to human rights. Moving to Tanzania has enlightened me to the fact that the struggle toward social justice is the same all over the world. Our cultures may be vastly different, we may live drastically different lives and problems may be more dire in some locations, but ultimately the equality and social justice issues that people face are the same globally and a similar mindset that supports inequality in America is the same as in Tanzania. 

Everyday for the past five years I have been listening to people's stories about the atrocities they face: a woman who has been beaten all day by her husband and ran away leaving her 10-month-old child at home; a friend of a family who's child has been stolen and brought to another town to be sold across the border; a victim of violence who has been charged by the police in order to file a police report; a child who has been molested for decades by a trusted family member. All of these things are normal circumstances for people all over  the world. It breaks my heart every time and I still don't understand how we can live in a world where these things happen with such frequency. 

But what breaks my heart just as much are the apathy and doubt that the general public feels about such things. I can't tell you the number of times I've found myself in heated debates with people who think we are fighting for social justice by pushing down other people (i.e. that we are trying to take away rights from men) or who try to claim that someone deserved to be hurt because they were in that situation in the first place or who say that people need to be hit or humiliated so they know they are loved. It's these kind of false, hurtful claims that continue to allow violence to happen.

I don't have anything profound or thoughtful to say. I just didn't want the day to completely pass without calling attention to the issue of human rights and to challenge the few readers at this space to do their little part. It doesn't need to be anything big or profound that you do. If everyone corrected misstatements and misperceptions whenever they heard them, we would no longer live in a world that supports inequality. 

Doing something says something. But doing nothing also says something.

I Wasn't Lying!

These are actually from a friend. This doesn't include what's growing on our tree. Keep the (cooking) suggestions coming.

Taking Suggestions

Winter means ripe mangos in Tanzania and our mango tree is just about to explode. I picked 6 mangos today (to add to the 5 or 6 we already had) and there seems to be no limit to the amount to what is left on the tree.

So, I'm trying to think of what to make to use up all this delicious goodness and I'm open to suggestions. I've thought about jam. Or pie. But somehow I'm just not satisfied with those. Any suggestions? Leave it in the comments (feel free to give recipes too).

Setting a Mood

We are trying to get in the holiday spirit here, so maybe putting up the tree will help. We're lucky that we inherited this tree from past MKLMers. I don't think there's anything cuter in the world. It even came with the tiniest ornaments. I love it more than it's reasonable to!

Sorting lights.

The cutest little ornaments.

Burr. It's cold out!

So quaint. 

3rd World Problems

I don't think I'll ever again forget how lucky I am to come from a place where access to clean water is a given.

By the way, this water incident was just after another incident with the bugs crawling out of the walls. Theeeeeeyyyyy'rrrrre baaaaaack.

In Preparation for Christmas

Sparkly nails! It just seemed like the right thing to do.