Lulu Graduation Festivities

This past week has been a busy one for Lulu Mwanza. Four of our girls groups finished their cycle of classes. It usually takes about 9 months to get through all of the lessons. Once they have finished the lessons, girls can continue but it's a big accomplishment to stick through it and the participants really go through a transformation in the process. So, we like to celebrate the occasion and give them a well-deserved party. Well, actually 3 days of partying.

Monday's Netball Match

Since there are too many girls for everyone to attend the actual graduation, we invited all the girls in all 8 of the Lulu groups to a netball match at the beginning of the week.


 Corine explaining how the matches would be organized.

One of the pillars of the program is cooperation and this a great opportunity for the girls to get to know each other, root for other teams, and have some healthy competition. And, boy did they compete!


Eliza gets taken out but the game continues.


During a break in the matches, the girls from Bwiru sing a victory song while others make plans for the rest of the game or are resting till it's their turn to play.

It was really fun to watch, though, and as one team got knocked out of competition, they'd immediately start rooting for another team. In the end one of our newest groups were the victors.


Mecco celebrating their big win.

Cooking and Prep for Gradation

On Tuesday a select number of graduating girls and facilitators gathered to bake the cakes, cooking and sambusas for graduation. It's another added "gift" to the girls who have had good attendance and have showed initiative throughout the year for them to learn how to bake cakes and cookies. Cakes are a hot commodity here in Mwanza and they are very expensive, even for a simple sheet cake. So learning to bake is a skill they could use to start a business in their communities.

Did you know you can bake cakes and cookies are charcoal grills? There are a number of ways you can do it, but here's how we did it.


First you have to fill a tray with sand. We just dug it up in the yard.


That tray will be placed on a charcoal grill until it is very hot.


Then, once you've put greased newspaper in the bottom of a pan and filled it with your batter, place that on the hot sand.


Cover the lid with hot coals and a stone and leave it to cook until done.

I'd heard about this method before but hadn't had the chance to try it out. I have to say it was a whole lot easier than I had expected and the cakes turned out really well. The girls did all the work and were so proud of their accomplishments!

Wednesday Graduation

First of all, about graduation I have to say that the girls take all the credit for it being a success. They planned, organized, and put together everything with guidance and technical advice from Corine. But all the work and planning was done by them. They researched and reserved the hall rental; planned, bought and put up all the decorations; wrote out the schedule of ceremonies; MCed the event; planned and put on skits, songs and dances. All of it was so great and the best part was just the self confidence they showed. You could just see the pride on their faces. This is a far step away from the normal behavior of Tanzanian young women, who often hide their faces if asked a question and are discouraged from making direct eye contact with people.


Teddy icing the cakes, which we'd made the day before.


Easter hanging balloons.


Finishing touches on the head table.


The ceremony going on.


The girls from Ilamela group danced.


Eliza, Teddy, and Anisisa sing a song of thanks for the Lulu program.

It was an action-packed week and my body is paying the price for it this weekend (I'm sick in bed as I write this) but what a great week and what a wonderful tribute to some special girls.

Corpus Christi 2014

In Catholic news, today is the feast of Corpus Christi. In the US we don't usually do much to commemorate this feast day, but in much of the rest of the world parades and processions are usually held. In our own church in Mabatini there is always a procession in between the two Masses, where the Eucharist is paraded down the street and a large line of people go before and after, singing songs and making joyful sounds. It's always kinda cool to watch*.


The Eucharist is processed under this tent with incense being spread before it. You can also see the children in front with white shirts and red skirts/pants. Those are the Eucharistic dancers, who were throwing flower petals in front as they processed. Love them.


The line is actually quite long; it snakes around out of the picture and then back in again.


A video of the procession coming into the church.


*Even if it means that Mass is then 3 1/2 hours.

International Day of the African Child

Did you know June 16 is the Day of the African Child? In honor of the day, let's meet some of the familiar African child faces from our neighborhood. What better reason to celebrate than these cuties! And aren't we lucky we get to see them every day.


Maende in fancy shoes. He has a wonderful personality and is just old enough to be coming into his own.


Paulo. His parents own the little shop where we buy our daily staples (bread, eggs, flour, matches, etc.).


Sifa, which means praise. She's a girl. She comes with her mom each week for tutoring class with Chris.


Last but certainly not least, Stevu. I like to think of him as kinda the mayor of the kids in the neighborhood. His mom also owns another little shop where we buy our staples when Mama Paulo is out.

Lulu Merchandise for Sale (Limited quantities)

After I posted the picture of our Lulu booth at last weekend's craft fair, I received some feedback from folks interested in purchasing items. As I'm sure most understand, shipping from Africa isn't really very reliable, nor is it cost effective. So I have to rely on travelers coming to and from our area to transport any items going to the US. Luckily, such an opportunity is coming up next month! So, I present to you pictures of Lulu items that I have for sale.


Crocheted Bag/Purse (with lining and zipper), Stuffed Lizard made from kitenge African fabric, and Small Gift Bags made out of kitenge


Closeup of Bag/Purse (also available in pink)


Closeup of Lizards


Closeup of Gift bags


Crocheted Baby and Infant Sweaters and Caps and Balls made of kitenge African fabric


Necklaces with handmade beads of kitenge African fabric (available in 3 lengths: 25-, 30- and 40-bead count) and Greeting Cards (cards available are Christmas cards, flowers, wedding, and baby)


Closeup of the cool beads with various fabrics/colors


Mobiles with birds, stars or hearts (available in 2 lengths: 3- and 5-count) made of kitenge African fabric and bracelets with handmade beads of kitenge African fabric


Closeup of shorter Mobiles


Closeup of longer Mobiles



Closeup of Bracelets


Plastic Ball with rattle inside made of recycled plastic bags


Plastic Bag/Basket made of recycled plastic bags

I have limited quantities and the space in the suitcase will be small, so big orders for churches or other groups will have to wait for another time (though you can certainly let me know if this is something you're interested in for the future). Leave a comment in the message box, or email me at kreid(at)mklm.org with questions or more detailed pictures and to discuss payment options.


Also, here's a picture of the girls in Mabatini* making cards last week. I love that they're all wearing their Lulu t-shirts, which say Ushirikiano (cooperation), Uthubutu (assertiveness), and Ubunifu (creativity)!


Finally, here's a Lulu baby, one of many. Queenie gets a little bored during our lessons so we tried to entertain her on this day by putting chalk on her face. She loved it!

Asante sana (thank you so much) on behalf of the girls for your support!


*Just to be clear, the handcrafts pictured above are made by all Lulu girls in our various groups around Mwanza.

Craft Fair May/June 2014

We just had the first of 2 days at the Mwanza Charity Craft Fair. Great day! A little hot, but the company was great, the crafts were beautiful and the causes were worthy.


Taking a break from the sun. In the back you can see some of the hanging mobiles and necklaces that the girls made.


Our booth with crafts, all of which were made by Lulu girls. If you can take out take out the stuff from the booth from behind us, you'll see bags and balls made out of grocery bags, crocheted tablet bags, bracelets, baby sweaters, crocheted bags, balls made out of African fabric, etc. Great job, girls!

We hope even more people will come out tomorrow to support the great work in Mwanza.

Lulu Happenings

I'm so proud of the Lulu girls in Mabatini. Ever since they learned kazi za mikono (handcrafts), they have really been working hard to get things done so they can sell them and make a little money. (The idea is that this money will be used to fund small businesses of their own.) For the past month the girls have been showing up early and not wanting to leave when the class is over. We have to kick them out! And THAT'S saying something from a culture where it's normal for no one to show up to a meeting until an hour after it was supposed to start. It's just really exciting and heartwarming to see them really using their skills to the fullest.


Mwanhamisi, who is a new facilitator currently in training, sits with Easter (pronounced Ester). who is a more experienced facilitator, to learn about making greeting cards.


One of our most quiet participants, Nyigo, is really proficient at card-making and it's been a great way to get her more involved with the other girls, who are much more outgoing.

The downside to this is that when you empower people to stand up for what they want, they can get really pushy. Just as it is heartwarming to see our hard work paying off, it's also really annoying when they're all 20 of them swarmed around me and demanding whatever it is that they need. Sheesh! We've created monsters!*

Also, speaking of unexpected things...Sometimes we have unexpected visitors in our Lulu classroom. Check out who stopped by with his family to hear about our session on family planning. There were so many of them, I think they might need the lesson!


A family of monkeys! This was the only shot I could grab of these cute, but mischievious guys.

*Really, I'm just kidding. I wish all my friends and family at home could see the transformations from our first meetings, where everyone was timidly sitting, afraid to talk or interact with each other, up until now, when they're joking with each other, participating in classes, and working so hard. So many of them have started small businesses and are making a little money to help their families along or to educate their kids. It's really, truly wonderful!

Happy Mother's day

Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, step-mothers, mothers-in-law, and mother-like figures, especially to those who who are no longer united with their children.

I thought that a special flashback Mother's Day picture would be appropriate for this occasion.

Mom and Grandmom on presumably Mother's Day AM, just a few years back.

I don't know if I should say sorry to or congratulate my step-mom on her fortune at the incomprehensible fact that I don't have an old photo of her.  Instead, here's one of my two mom's on our last visit.

Photo by Ben Waldie.

Duara wa Utawala na Uthubiti- Power and Control Wheel in Swahili

When I was planning my presentation on Healthy Relationships and Domestic Violence for the Lulu facilitators' training last month I was hoping to find some materials in Swahili so that I could use their own words to describe things or define concepts, rather than using English words and concepts translated into Swahili.

If I were doing a presentation in America or in English I could do a quick Google search and find an overwhelming amount of materials, as well as some fairly standard tools that are used pretty much universally by most Domestic Violence Prevention Educators across North America. Unfortunately, when I did those same searches in Swahili I couldn't find a single thing. So I had to recreate the wheel, literally.

Duara wa Utawala na Uthubiti or Power and Control Wheel, in English

Since there was really nothing online I thought I'd add my contribution to the field here. Maybe someone in the future will do research on violence in East African relationships and this will be helpful to them. This was reviewed by several Tanzanians and Tanzanian cultural experts, so I think it's not only linguistically accurate, but also culturally appropriate. I think it's a shame that there's not more resources out there specifically for Tanzania and, more importantly, research out there in Swahili.

So here is Power and Control Wheel, or Duara wa Utawala na Uthubiti in Swahili, which is a tool to describe various methods that an abuser often uses to obtain power over another person. It certainly isn't an all-inclusive list, but just an illustration of a few examples. I wanted to have pictures in order to be inclusive of those who can't read, but being that I have little to no artistic ability I didn't want to (poorly) draw everything. Luckily, I found pictures from a Power and Control Wheel I found online, which is meant to be used for people with hearing impairments.

So anyways, for all posterity here it is. Hope it can be of some use to someone at some point.

Happy 11th Anniversary to the Hubby

Remember when we looked like this? Wow! Happy 11th, babe.

Translations

One thing I can't do without is my translator App on my iPhone. It's nothing fancy but I go everywhere with it and use it a zillion times a day. I decided to create a Wordle out of the most recent words that were saved in the App's history. Thought it would give an interesting snapshot of what words I'm using (and failing to remember because I've looked them up over and over again!).

Happy Easter

For the second year in a row, we (me and the Rossers) dyed Easter eggs and had an egg hunt with the neighborhood kids on the Saturday before Easter. This isn't really a custom that Tanzanians participate in, so it's hard for the kids to fully understand what we're doing and why we're doing it. But that doesn't stop us from having a great time!


Caitlin helping Steve to dye his egg and pick out stickers while Steve manages his lollipop.


Check out this little egg.

I think my favorite part of the day was when one of the girls saw David walking back from the duka with juice he just bought for the kids to drink and she says with glee, "ARE WE GOING TO HIDE THE JUICE NOW!?"


Dogs, kids and chickens all race around the yard to find the eggs.

We had to keep a close eye on the dogs and chase them away a lot because they were keen to get the eggs and eat them before the kids could find them!


Counting the eggs to be sure we found them all.

After the hunt was over, all the kids were able to eat a few eggs and a glass of mango juice.


Enjoying the fruits of their labor...well, I guess that would be the fruits of the chickens labor.


Smokey waiting for an opportunity.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter Sunday and wishing you continued blessings for the whole Easter season.

Two Weeks of Workshops

The past two weeks of Lulu have been quite exciting. Last week all of the Lulu participants in all 5 of the groups around town had the opportunity to study different hand craft skills. We offered crocheting workshops, workshops on making gift cards, on sewing different stuffed animals, and on making rosaries. The girls were able to chose which of the handcrafts they wanted to learn and then they traveled to another group for the class. This offered the participants the opportunity to learn about other Lulu groups and to meet girls from another area of town. I had a great time hosting new girls at the Mabatini workshops and loved just sitting with them as they quietly worked away.


A participant from our Mabatini group learns how to sew animals out of fabric.


Sikudhani, the teacher, is showing off the "mifano" or examples that the girls are learning to sew, a ball and a lizard.

This past week the regular Lulu participants had the week off for holiday, but the facilitators and we coordinators were busy with facilitator workshops. All week long we had sessions to help the peer educators develop new facilitation skills, learn new topics, and increase their skills to be better at their jobs as Lulu facilitators.

Listening intently. Photo by Corine 't Hart.

On Monday I had the opportunity to facilitate a 90-minute session on healthy relationships and domestic violence. Did I mention it was in Swahili!? It my first time presenting this topic in Swahili so it was a challenge. But all-in-all I thought it went well and I was really proud of myself.

Facilitating my workshop. Photo by Corine 't Hart.

 

Facilitating my workshop. Photo by Corine 't Hart.

All week long, it was so wonderful to see the girls laughing and enjoying each others' company, asking insightful questions, challenging each other and the facilitators, and expanding their minds and world-views. It makes me so happy to be here and so honored to play even a small part of facilitating this change in them.

Our whole crew for the week. Photo by Corine t' Hart.

How's Bubu?

I haven't posted much lately. Things are busy with the normal stuff of work and rest.

But how's Bubu, you want to know.

Chilling, as always.

Another Year, on to 36

It's hard for me to believe that a year ago I was in the US on a quick, last minute trip due to ongoing illnesses. The year has really flown by and here I am, still in Tanzania, celebrating another birthday, my 36th. I am so happy that this past year I have been able to put a lot of my health issues behind me  and concentrate more on work and enjoying my life here.

Thanks, everyone, for all the well-wishes, emails, Facebook messages, notes, etc on my birthday. It really means a lot to me to be remembered. I had a very nice day. I spent the morning at the one and only nice coffee shop in town for a work meeting. It was much nicer than it sounds because my coworker is also a friend and I enjoyed a cool iced tea while we planned and chatted. I also spent a few hours with these ladies.




Then I got to go out to dinner with this guy.



Here's what was on the other side of the table.



Wuw! I can't believe that I actually look like this because this is what I still think I look like.



Anyways, here's to another great year of getting older, to health, happiness and meaningful work!

Expanding Lulu Groups

Over the past few weeks I've made a slight but important shift in my ministry work. Where I once was really only working with one of our Lulu groups, the one in Mabatini that I helped to open up, I'm now taking on a bit more responsibility with some of the other groups around town. Our Mabatini group is doing really well; the facilitators are planning well and handling the group; the girls are gaining more and more skills each day; and soon they'll be learning some hand crafts so they can make a little more money for themselves and their families.


 The girls have gotten really good at doing skits/role plays. Here they're talking about saving money by shopping around for the best price of vegetables.


Natalie, an adult facilitator, teaches about managing money and creating a budget based on income and expenditures.

Now is a good time for me to take a step back (while still supporting them, of course) and help Corine, the SMA missioner who created the program and is the person responsible for Lulu in her goal to open up 2 more Lulu groups in 2 different areas of the city. Last week we went out for some visits to those locations.

In an area called Nyakato, we had a meeting for interested girls and their parents. We have a lot of great support in this area from the local leaders, one of whom offered up their house for us to have this meeting.


Corine talking about Lulu and how the girls can join

On Wednesday of this week I will go out for our first meeting in Nyakato exclusively for the girls (without parents). It's always a good feeling to start a fresh new group. At this point, there's nothing going wrong, they're all clean slates toward the program and we can start at square one. Soon things take on a life of their own and become more complicated, so it's always a nice, fresh feeling at the start! Despite the challenges that may come, though, I'm very excited to see what happens here!

After we get Nyakato group off the ground, we plan to work with a local computer school to start another group, in an area called Mecco (not too far from Nyakato). The computer school has a special program for young girls who are pregnant or parenting, to teach them computer skills and try to help them get a job. We're going to open a Lulu group here to help give the girls even more skills.


Me and Corine meeting with Rose, one of the office staff at EBLI (Education for Better Living).

Answers to Life's Most Pressing Questions

When we were in the US, we were fielding a lot of great questions from family and friends. After a while we started noticing some of the same questions popping up over and over, so I thought I’d devote a blog or two to answering some of the more popular questions. If you’ve got a question about our life here in TZ, about the local’s way of life, about our work, our observations, etc., feel free to write it in the comments section and I’ll try to get to it in a future post.

What kinds of food do you eat?

In our home we eat Western food similar to what we ate in America. Since coming here, Chris and I are no longer vegetarians so we eat meat, but I don’t cook it a lot. We can get a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, pastas, rice, and dried beans.


Here are some of the veggies I bought today. It's very rare for me to get zucchini or lettuce so today is a good day! Can you tell there are lemons and oranges in there? They are both green!

Most of the food is locally grown, with the small exception of things coming in from Nairobi or South Africa. So that means there’s limited diversity and if it’s not made/grown in Tanzania, it’s going to be much more expensive. For example, cheese. You can buy cheese here, but there are only a few kinds and they are usually a mild cheddar-type variety and it’s very expensive. We splurge on buying cheese and tend to eat a fair amount of it but we use that same cheese for everything--on pizza, in “Mexican” dishes, in risotto, on grilled cheese sandwiches. You get my point.

Nom nom nom. I sure would love some of this liquid goodness.

When we visit Tanzanians in their homes, they either serve rice with meat/fish, vegetables, and/or beans or the same accompaniments with ugali.
 

Meals usually look a little like this.

Ugali, a staple in many parts of Africa, is basically boiled flour that forms a more paste-like polenta. This type of food is almost exclusively what Tanzanians eat in this area of the country. I really like some local foods, while others are just so-so to me. The beans are awesome. Smashed greens with peanut sauce? Yum, my mouth is watering just typing about it. Their hot sauce is probably one of my favorite things too. I actually don’t even mind the ugali, though I wouldn’t want to eat it every day like they do.

What’s your house like? (Do you have power, running water, electricity?)

We live in a very adequate, safe house with finished concrete walls, a metal roof, running water and electricity. It’s 3-bedroom (we use 1 as an office) with 2 bathrooms. While certainly not luxurious in American standards, considering that most Americans assume we live in a mud-block and thatched roof house, it’s quite nice. And, compared to the vast majority of Tanzanians, who do live in mud-block, thatched-roof houses, or with 10 people in one room, we’re living the highlife.

Here's a quick tour of what our (messy) house looks like today:


Here is the road as you approach our house behind the gate on the right.


Our cute little yard and house. The vehicle belongs to MKLM and we are fortunate to get to use it right now.


Our washer and dryer in the side yard. Haha.


As you walk into our house, our bedroom is on the right.


A few steps from our bedroom is our dining room, living room and kitchen, which are all one big room.


Everything's a bit messy right now but it's an accurate representation of the normal basis.


Our master bathroom is across the hall from the living/dining room/kitchen. There is a sit-down toilet in our bathroom off the bedroom. This bathroom is where we take showers. Cold water goes through the heater on the shower head and it has an electrical unit to heat it up. We call that "the widow-maker."


In the back of the house on the right is our office and across the hall is a guest bedroom. I didn't take a picture of that today.

What do you “do”?

As Americans we tend to define ourselves in terms of what we do, whereas Tanzanians want to know who a person’s family is and where they come from. They usually “do” whatever they can to get by. I find that now that we’ve lived here for 2 years, it’s easier for me to think in these terms, partly because it’s hard to describe what I “do” and how I describe what I do might depend on who I’m talking to.

When I say I’m a missionary or with a Catholic Lay Mission organization Tanzanians tend to know that this means that I’ve been inspired by my faith to move to another country to work in some sort of aid capacity. For those from a more Western perspective who want to know more or who might have a different impression when they hear the word “missionary,” I’m working on a girls’ projects called Lulu that helps young women roughly between the ages of 15-20 years old who are out of school, have children or live in at-risk environments. The girls meet two-times or more a week to learn about life skills, communication/cooperation, handcrafts and small business skills. I am working with another Lay Missioner (an SMA Lay Missioner from the Netherlands), who wrote the program and piloted it in several locations. Istarted my first group in my own neighborhood of Mabatini, an incredibly overpopulated and poor urban neighborhood in Mwanza city. We are now in the process of opening 2 more groups, which we expect to have off the ground in the next month to two months. I tend to take more of a behind-the-scenes roll in my work. We use Tanzanian facilitators, usually girls themselves, and I support them to make sure they’re successful.

What do you do in your spare time? (Hobbies/ways to get away)

To be honest, there’s not much to do here in Mwanza. No movie theaters, few museums and not many places to “get away” from the hustle and bustle of city life. I like to go out to eat at the numerous restaurants or “hotelis” in town. Sometimes we drive to the top of a large rock outcropping overlooking Lake Victoria and have a picnic dinner. I like to swim at a pool at the international school and sometimes I go along with some of our neighborhood kids. I like to run/jog in the early mornings. I like to find creative ways to cook with the limited ingredients we have here (see the question above about food). Chris and I have had a great time traveling to other countries around the region, but that is expensive and takes time so we can’t do that more than 1x/year if we’re lucky. Mostly if the power is on and the work is done, I watch movies or TV shows at night on the computer. We rely pretty solely on things that people send on external drives, so if you’re ever thinking of something to mail us, that’s a pretty good bet!


Picnic dinner with fellow MKLMers on the rock outcroppings.

What’s the weather like? (AKA It’s hot there, right?)

A snapshot of this month's weather from weather.com. Not much variety.

The weather maintains a fairly constant temperature all year round in Mwanza. We’re on the lake, so we get some cooling effect due to that. The temperature usually remains in the 80’s (Fahrenheit) and only varies about 7 degrees, depending on whether it’s the wet or dry season. We have 2 rainy seasons, the long rainy and short rainy season. The weather tends to get more hot right before the rains come and then it cools off a bit when it starts to rain. 

What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

Clearly it’d be an African so you can easily do the math there. You have to know these things when you're a king you know.

International Women's Day 2014

As I mentioned yesterday, today, March 8, is International Women's Day, a global awareness campaign to celebrate successes in the journey toward equality and rights for women and children and to bring to light challenges as we make plans to move forward.

In honor of this day, I wanted to bring attention to just one of the many struggles around the world. This one illustrates real burdens and dangers women face and it also points out the need for more work to protect and promote all people's rights.

This morning I read this article from Inter Press Service News Agency about women who are being assaulted, harassed, raped and murdered on Indian transportation systems. "Nearly 25,000 rapes took place in India in 2012, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. About half of these sexual assaults took place in buses, taxis and three-wheeler autorickshaws." As a response, an Indian Judicial Committee was assigned to make recommendations about what to do to curb the violence. Over 13 months later, in January of this year the Indian government put an initial fund of 15 million dollars to install GPS trackers, closed circuit TV cameras and emergency phone call facilities in public transport vehicles in 32 cities.

First of all, I want to be honest and upfront that I really don't know much about India other than what I've read in the news and a few books about the inequalities of women in that country. India has been in the media a lot of the past few years because of the numerous and very brutal sexual assaults against women there. This violence has definitely has gotten a lot of global attention, which I'm glad about (the media attention, not the assaults obviously). What I do know about, though, is prevention of sexual violence and because of this I have a lot of thoughts on this IPS article.

Although the proposed plan to install trackers, cameras, etc. on public transport is a okay idea in terms of catching criminals now, it's a far cry from a holistic approach toward eradication of violence and it's has a lot of loopholes. I suspect that India has some similarities to Tanzania in terms of disjointed political and justice systems, spotty infrastructure and a system of bribery that goes from the bottom all the way to the top of the criminal justice system. Those cameras and GPS devises could easily be tampered with and when they break, I am sure they will not be fixed in a timely fashion. Also, what's the response time if a woman is on a rural dirt road in a crowded bus is assaulted and hits the emergency call button? I'm sure the assault or maybe even murder will be already finished with and the perpetrator(s) already long gone by the time the police arrive, if they arrive at all.

Secondly, this approach won't stop violence from happening. It will only change the location where the violence occurs. It is just a band-aid approach and won't curb the larger problem of inequality of women and the sense of entitlement that the abusers feel that causes these behaviors to continue. As A.L. Sharada, program director at Population First says in the article, "'Road safety is not about making a few vehicles smart,' Sharada tells IPS. 'It’s about making roads safe for women to go out at any time of day or night with confidence. To do that we need better governance, better policing and also a good community-based support system for women. Without these, you can’t change the scenario.'”

So these are certainly challenges that need to be highlighted, discussed and overcome but at the same time, I'm really glad that at least some of the stories are being highlighted in the media, that discussions are happening and that governments are at least recognizing (albeit it's often just lip-service) human injustice as an issue. Let's keep these discussions going after March 8 and every day of the year.

Why Do We Need an International Women's Day?

Tomorrow, March 8, marks International Women's Day, a yearly campaign started in 1911. This day gives voice to the social, political and economic advancements that women have made over the years and is an opportunity to challenge people all over the world to advocate and work toward the rights and dignity of women. Remember last year when I kinda, sorta, almost met the First Lady of Tanzania?

This morning I ran across this piece over at The Guardian, where several gender-equality campaigners (dare I say, feminists*) voice their opinion about why we need such a once-a-year campaign. I thought I'd take this opportunity to voice my own opinion on the matter.

Being the skeptic that I am, in my own mind I often find myself beginning to question the logic and the usefulness of one-day campaigns like International Women's Day. Don't get me wrong, this "skepticism," as I'll call it, definitely does not derive from me questioning the fact that women still haven't achieved equal status or whether there needs to be campaigns championing the cause of human rights. I have been working in the human rights field for almost 15 years and have countless examples of why humans are not yet equal in our world. No, instead I sometimes question whether a one-day campaign makes any difference when I know that in order for us to have a more just, equitable world for all the issue of human rights has to be an everyday thing. These issues have to be at the forefront of our daily lives until the issue isn't an issue anymore because it's just become a new normal way of life.

If you look at any calendar, each year is littered with awareness days and special months-Martin Luther Kind Day, Veteran's Day, Earth Day, Women's History Month-even religious holidays and Holy Days-Lent, Hanukkah, Eid al Adha-which serve as a reminder of something and/or remembrance of special events or people of the past. We humans like to band together for community, for unifying purposes, for remembrances and celebrations. We seem to inherently recognize the importance of these days and they do, indeed, make a difference in our lives. Same is true, then, for International Women's Day.  It's a day when people who believe in global equality for women and girls can stand together, remember how far we have come, challenge our present barriers, and plan a map toward further future change. And, so in this way, I can see the need to have a day such as International Women's Day.

International Women's Day coincides each year with the UN's Commission on the Status of Women. This commission examines those everyday things I mentioned above as being important that are being done to help bring about a more just world. You can look here to see what improvements have been made toward meeting Millennium Development Goals. Even though we are way behind in achieving the MDGs and I know a lot of countries are just giving lip service to them, I also know from my experience here in TZ that improvements have been made and that it wouldn't have been done without the UN or various commissions such as the one that convenes this month. International Women's Day is a great opportunity for voices around the world to unite and influence discussions during the UN's Commission. It can be sort of like a litmus test for what is happening around the world, both in terms of progress as well as needs going forward.

I noticed on CNN that they will be having a live Tweetchat today on how to bring about gender equality and build a better future for all women. It's in like an hour from when I'm typing this, so I guess I should hit publish soon. If it weren't so late here in TZ I'd really like to join in to hear (read) what people are saying. I think it's kinda cool that there are forums like these to discuss this issue. If International Women's Day is the instigator for such discussions, okay then. Let's just continue it all throughout the year.


*I hate that the word feminism has become such a taboo word, like with its mere mention, people conjure up an image of a man-hating radical who wants to live in a society where women dominate. Rather, a feminist is someone who advocates for the social, political, economic and legal rights of women so that men and women can BOTH be respected for their differences, while at the same time being treated as equals. The mere fact that people shy away from using this term (how many times have you heard someone say something along the lines of, "I mean...I'm not a feminist, but I believe women and men should be treated equally"?) shows how far we have to go in this campaign to change social views of women. As Pope Francis says in his book, The Joy of the Gospel: "Diversity must always be reconciled by the help of the Holy Spirit; he alone can raise up diversity, plurality and multiplicity while at the same time bringing about unity."

The Best Reward After Living in Tanzania After Two Years Part 2

As we knew it would, time flew by on our vacation in the US and now we're back home in Tanzania again and everything from a week ago onward seems like a dream. But a dream it was not and here are some pictures and a few stories from the second half of our trip to prove it. (Details from the first half of our trip are here.)

Mississippi


Welcome home, son of the south.

The best part of being MS, of course, was catching up with family. We had a lot of good quality time with Chris's mom, who we'd not seen in over two years, and his sister and brother-in-law made the long trek down from Chicago, which was so amazing even if they were only there for a few short days. We managed to have a bunch of family gatherings and even celebrate Tricia's 60th birthday.


The family with a huge horse and some random dude.


Feeling nifty at sixty. (I know, that doesn't really rhyme.)


The Reid clan gave the casino the what-for. (Not really. I think Chris and I lost about $10 and called it a night. And I saw Clint nursing $20 on the roulette table while some fellow player blew $100 in one bet. HELLO, big spenders!)

We had the pleasure of doing several "church talks" during our visit to the states. This was a great opportunity to speak with people during and after Church Masses to tell them about life in other countries, to inform them about the work of MKLM and ask them to join in our journey through prayer, donations, receiving our newsletter, or visiting us in the field. If you've not already, think about joining us in our work in any of these ways.


Chris after a church talk. We really enjoyed meeting people and sharing our stories. Side note-that sweater has been in the family for at least 20 years, no lie!

Speaking of sharing our stories, did we tell you we made the front page of the Vicksburg Post? Must've been a slow news day.


Whatwhat!?

South Carolina

I think if we made one mistake on this trip, it was not scheduling enough time in South Carolina, our adopted home state. I kind of knew this going into it, but it was kind of unavoidable. I mean, we have no blood family in SC and we had limited time to spend in each place. So unfortunately, our friends and adopted family in SC kinda got the short shrift this go-round. Sorry guys! Maybe next time we'll just stay in SC and make everyone come to us.

We had a bunch of gatherings with friend friends, coworker friends, church friends, feline friends, baby friends, etc. etc., until we were run out of town by the snow. Seriously folks, it followed us everywhere and prevented us from adding an extra day to our visit there. But! each gathering was wonderful and made me feel so special and loved. We are so lucky to have these people in our lives and I am constantly humbled (and sometimes a bit baffled) by the extent of their support and friendship.


Sean and Cheryl trying to entertain some of the horde of kids during the Sunday lunch.


Chris and I are so grateful to the Myers for hosting and for those who came from near and far to hang out.


Bonfire, s'mores and wine-just like old times.


STSM crew still doing amazing work in the Midlands!


Let's not forget our former babies!


We like to think they remembered us, although I think they'd cuddle with just about anyone.

Virginia

We escaped the snow by going north into the mountains, which doesn't quite make sense, but it worked. Along the way to Virginia for an overnight with my uncle and aunt we did what Chris and I pretty much never do, we took a spur-of-the-moment stopover for sight-seeing! Maybe Africa has taught us to be spontaneous. We've taken a million and one road trips in our time, and we always say, "oh, sometime we should stop there to see blah blah blah." But we never do. Except this time. We took the chance to explore the majestic Dixie Caverns in Salem VA. It was actually pretty neat and our tour guide was hilarious, one-in-a-million. I wish we had a picture of him, but instead...


We have the majestic turkey wing.

The visit with Aunt Cathie and Uncle Timmy was awesome. They were so great to invite their neighbors over to hear our stories and peruse the African handicrafts we were selling.


Small gathering of Waldies.

Philadelphia*
We were so fortunate to be able to spend 4 whole days hanging out at my brother's family's house. In the past 2 years, they have added a new member to the family and the other two are getting so grown. Like truly, they're almost grown adults by now. Chris and I really treasured this time together catching up, eating lots of good food and rocking out on the Wii. What made it even cooler is that my dad and step-mom flew in from California for a few days to hang out as well (Imagine, giving up that warmer weather for the polar vortex on the East Coast! Oh wait, we did that too.) and we had a big larger family gathering on one of those days.


It was fun to see that Maddie was still into doing things like this-tattooing Unkie's head.


When did this one get so big!


This one heads to college next year. She's as cool as ever but also I'm happy to see she hasn't yet outgrown her aunt and Unkie.


This new one, well, what can I say. She's sweet and smart and funny. Love her.


What's the name of this game, which they play on Ellen? Whatever it is, yeah, everyone in the family was playing that. It was funny except that I was sick and trying to sleep on the floor but everyone was yelling and laughing so loudly that they woke me up. How rude of them to have so much fun.


The mothers celebrate their birthdays.


Playing the Wii was so much fun that they even got me and my brother to play when we usually sit those things out.**


Our final visit was to Sister Thomasmari, my former campus minister from NYU. She is the first one to mention MKLM to me, so I blame her for all this. It was super great that my friends from NYU, Anthony and Paul, could also come down to join us.

New Jersey

We spent our in-between times in New Jersey with my mom and step-dad, which was great as always. That's the place in the states that's most like home for us right now and it's a great place to relax, enjoy good food/bevs and be taken care of. Plus, they lent us their car, paid for a lot of our gas and let us steal things from their house. I mean, what more could we ask for?


Mom all dolled up for something or other, probably the opening of the artist co-op's new location.


Bo likes to pretend he doesn't care, but we know otherwise.


Again and again, we can't say how much we enjoyed our trip and what it means to us to have so many amazing people in our lives. I equate it to a video game, where you have to do something or other to gain more power and continue the game. That's how our visit home was for us- with each group of friends we saw, each amazing meal, each laugh and hug, we were gaining more and more "power" to take back with us to TZ to continue the work that we're doing here. Asanteni sana wote. Thank you all.

*To be accurate, it was outside of Philly, but you get the idea.

**Bonus video of the Wii awesomeness:
 

Living in Solidarity

If you've been following my African adventures over the past 2 years, you may have noticed that I tend to get sick a lot. Even when I was in the US, I was trying to get rid of amoeba and a urinary track infection, which followed me from TZ. I get so sick of being sick. It's one of the biggest "burdens" that I feel I face living here. I get tired of not knowing what's wrong, tired of being medicated, tired of going to the doctor's offices, tired of just feeling yucky.

I bring all of this up just to say that I'm not alone in this. Being constantly sick, constantly medicated, and constantly in the dark about why you're sick is very common for the people of Tanzania. I cannot know what it is to be Tanzania, nor can I know what it is like to live how they live, even as I live here alongside them. But from my experience of being constantly sick, I get a small glimps into the hardships that they face and I can sympathize all the more about their struggles.

Take for example Kulwa. Remember when I visited Kulwa,* the young woman who had just given birth in late November? My Lulu facilitator and I visited her again today in her family home. We had plans to visit another Lulu participant, but that didn't work out.** So, since we were in Kulwa's neighborhood, we decided to follow up with her. We have only seen her one time since our last visit because we've heard that there's been illness in the family.

When we entered the family courtyard today, we first notice an elderly bibi (grandmom) sitting on the stoop. We assume she is the grandmom who we heard had been sick, so we greet her and ask about her health. She answers that it's been "so-so," or it is as it is. As we were chatting, another woman, still a bibi but a bit younger than the first, comes out of the house. She looks in good health and has a broad smile on her face, but as she warmly greets us I realize that her stomach is swollen and distended, almost like she's pregnant although she's too old to be. She tells us she's the grandmom and the women we were just talking with is her mother (the great-grandmom of Kulwa and great-great-grandmom and Kulwa's daughter). This woman is the one who has been sick, as her swollen stomach can attest.

We enter the house and I am quickly handed Kulwa's baby girl, who is now about 3 months old. I am super happy to see that the little baby girl looks strong, is holding her head up and seems perfectly happy and healthy. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the rest of the family. In addition to Kulwa's grandmom, Kulwa herself has been sick, on and off again since giving birth. She says she's been constantly taking malaria medications, which can be detrimental to her health if she takes long-term. She's been to the clinic and they sometimes say it's malaria and other times they say it's something along the lines of "maternal fever," a sickness they believe mothers get after giving birth. We talked a while with the family, inquiring about the medications they both have been taking, what the doctors have said and their overall feeling as of late. Both patients seem resigned and don't have much faith that the doctors or the medications were helping. Instead, they say they are relying on God's intercession to heal them and have been going to church every day.

From my experience of being sick in TZ I can understand Kulwa and her grandmom's frustration with and lack of faith in the doctors here. Many of the medical professionals are under-trained, hospitals are understaffed and have outdated equipment, and the medicines can be counterfeit or expired. The system here doesn't inspire trust, nor should it. But what I am ill equipped to understand is this family's resignation that there is no solution to their problem. As an American, my culture tells me that there is an answer to any question, that if we work hard enough, we can overcome any hardship. Here in TZ, unfortunately, questions that could be answered often are not, systems that could be fixed are left to rot and ruin, and sick people like Kulwa and her grandmother who have illnesses that might be simply treated and cured are often misdiagnosed and they are left to whatever fate befalls them. And they are told that that's life, that there is nothing different or better out there, which is why they pray daily for intercession from God, because it's the only hope they know of.

I pray daily, but I don't just pray that people like me and Kulwa and her grandmom are healed. I pray and I work toward fixing a broken system, toward bringing up the people's education so that they can demand for better systems, so that they themselves can raise kids who will also be educated, more educated, and that they will be able to contribute toward fixing the broken system. It's a lot to pray for, a lot to work towards, but I know that it's possible, even if Kulwa and her family don't know it's possible. That's why I stay here, through the sickness and the medicine and the yucky feelings. I stay and I fight for Kulwa and her grandmom, who don't know what they're fighting for.


*I've changed this young lady's name.

**Things rarely work out on the first try so we've always got to be flexible and have backup plans.