Advent Blog from Dodoma, Tanzania

"Referred to in Tanzania as Christmas Trees they bloom at the start of Advent"

Karibu! It is hard to believe that we have been in Tanzania for six months already. Time is flying by.

"Wendy meets the Lockes"

14 November we travelled to Dar es Salaam to meet Wendy Gichuru at the airport. Wendy is our United Church of Canada (UCC) point of contact. It was great to finally meet her face to face and talk about Tanzania. The next day we drove back to Dodoma. While Wendy was here, we took her to visit some projects that the UCC is supporting, dealing with women gender issues, in Kiteto, and then to the Morogoro Women’s Training Center.

"Zanzibar Sunrise"

On 17 November we attended the Round Table meeting of CCT and their partners, on the island of Zanzibar. It was a great opportunity to meet the CCT Partners and learn more about how the partnership works. We were pleased to see the significant way the United Church’s Mission & Service fund supports the CCT financially as well as by providing two wonderfully gifted missionaries to serve with them in Dodoma. Our Hotel in Zanzibar called the Azanzi was in a beautiful setting looking out over the Indian Ocean and the ocean breeze provided a very welcome respite from the extreme heat.

"Linda ventures into the Indian Ocean"

We’re looking forward to our first Christmas in Tanzania. We have been thinking of buying a can of fake snow for a little touch of home. Ron’s sister and her husband are coming to visit and will be here to help us celebrate. As we approach the Christmas season, we are anxious to learn how Tanzanians herald the birth of Jesus and look forward to joining with them in celebration.

"Our Dodoma 'Sparkle Up' " 

Our Swahili lessons continue. We have a tutor, who comes to our office after work, three times a week, to teach us and I think we are improving. We are able to go shopping and do the necessary things.


Ron’s work on the new CCT website has progressed well. On 3 December he posted it to the web server, albeit with a limited amount of content. Now the Department Heads need to get information to Ron so it can be entered and viola, CCT will have a new, updated web page. Have a look and let us know what you think…. http://www.cct-tz.org/


The HIV/AIDS “Land for Life” project that we are championing is still waiting for land to be granted by CDA so that work can begin. The solar LED lights have been ordered and are on the way from Light Up the World.


We wish everyone a joyous and blessed Christmas season!

Bwana asifiwe!

Five Months In

"On our bedroom wall - a good 3" across"

In our last entry we told you about the new additions to our family, our chickens. Well, things didn’t go so well for them. They got a sickness and all died but one. That one will not be giving us any eggs as about 2 weeks ago he started to crow. Now we’re waiting to get some more hens.

For most of October, we had a tutor come to our house to give us some Swahili training. She is a student teacher who was in Dodoma doing a work term in a school here. Unfortunately, she has gone back to Dar es Salaam to continue her studies. We have contacted another teacher who is teaching at a school for ex-pat children and she will be starting to tutor us very soon. We may still be able to learn to speak Swahili before we come home.

Last month we were shocked to learn that our night guard’s 1 year old daughter died by choking on a peanut. His family lives in Singida which is about three hours from here. We didn’t know that his family wasn’t here in Dodoma with him and here he was working 7 days a week for us. We have now hired another guard to work 5 days a month so that Daniel can go home to his family for a few days each month. It is not uncommon in Tanzania for family members to live apart in order to find employment but at least now Daniel will have some time at home. We in Canada have so much to be thankful for.

"Lily easily handles Ron's pass"

In October, we hired a local school teacher to come to our house 4 days a week to teach our housekeeper English. We worry about what will happen to her and little Lily when we return to Canada. If Tukista is able to progress well enough, then our plan is to get her into an adult High School class in January.

We’re still waiting for CDA to grant us a parcel of land for the first eight homes of the Land for Life project. There is a back up plan but CCT is really counting on CDA to come through. We now have funding in place to build three of the eight homes and have our fingers crossed that CIDA will look favourably on our grant application for the other 5 homes.

"Maternal Health Care Worker Curriculum Development"

Last week we travelled to the Morogoro Women’s Training Center (MWTC) along with two other CCT staff, to work on the development of the Traditional Birth Assistant Upgrade Course. It was decided to rename the course the “Maternal Health Care Worker Course”. Tanzanian Ministry of Health staff will conduct six days of the training and MWTC will provide instruction for the remaining five days of the eleven day course. Attendees will receive a certificate upon completion of the course signed by both the Ministry of Health and the Director of the MWTC.

"CCT Website Banner - will have slideshow in grey area."

Ron has been making very good progress on the CCT website and next week he will present to the CCT management the website framework. From the framework, the staff will be able to get a sense of the look and feel of the site. Once the content and pictures are provided, the site should be able to go live before the end of the month.  A special thanks to Klassen Graphics of Moose Jaw who redid the CCT logo for us without charge!

We have started making plans for Ron’s sister’s visit. She and her husband Alar will be with us for Christmas. We’re getting excited about it. After Christmas we plan to do a safari to the Ruaha National Park and stay at the Tandala Tented Lodge http://www.tandalatentedcamp.com/ .

The weather is warming up here. Most days are 31 or 32 degrees and sunny. That’s pretty warm for us but the nights cool off nicely, so that is good. There has not been any rain in Dodoma yet but it will be coming soon.

This month we will be going to Zanzibar for a Round Table meeting with the partners of CCT. Wendy from UCC will be attending and visiting with us. We are looking forward to having a little time, following the two days of meetings, to tour the island.

Month Four in Tanzania

"Linda's new 'birthday' dress" 

Time is really flying by! Everything is going well here in Dodoma. The weather is great, not too hot yet. We have added to our household. We now have 7 chickens that we have named: Donna, Frances, Wilma, Betty, Irene, Tracey and Bwana (Mr.) T(anzania). I don’t think we will be eating any of them but we will enjoy their eggs.

"Lily tries out the chicken coop"

Before we got the chickens though we had to have a chicken coop constructed. We were introduced to a builder but we purchased the supplies with help from a colleague at CCT and the design was one we drew up. It’s not very big but there are only 7 chickens and they seem very happy to live there. Now where are the eggs??

Our daily routine continues with Linda in the CCT financial department and Ron working on the web page design. In any slow time we are continuing to work on the “Land for Life” project to benefit HIV/AIDS affected families and Orphans and Vulnerable children (OVC). We attended a seminar for organizations who are working with HIV/AIDS affected families. Ron gave a presentation on the proposed land for life project. We made many very valuable contacts and it will be good to collaborate rather than each group working alone with a lot of duplication of the basic ground work. The plan is to have more of these information gathering meetings to share ideas, successes and road blocks. We met the director of the Grace and Healing Ministry of Dodoma and we were invited to attend their next gathering with the Ipagala group of about 25 HIV/AIDS affected women.

"Ron briefs on Land for Life" 

We attended the fellowship at the small Mennonite Church with the Ipagala group. The afternoon began with a meal, followed by a slide presentation on the microbicide gel that was announced at the Vienna HIV/AIDS conference, and its effectiveness. While the Grace and Healing Ministry was passing out food supplies to the women, Ron and I walked the grounds with the Pastor, to find a possible location to build 8 “Land for Life” homes. This was an informative and enjoyable afternoon. On a second visit to Ipagala, Ron gave some of the potential beneficiaries a presentation on the Land for Life homes and received suggestions and comments from the group.

"UDDT Squatting Plate"

We’re trying to be very environmentally friendly in the home design with solar powered LED lights and urine diversion dehydrating toilets (UDDT). These toilets along with the capture of grey water will provide fertilizer and water for the gardens. Now we would really like to be able to begin building in October. We would appreciate your prayers for the success of this project. This will be a proof of concept trial. If all goes well many more families can be helped.

"Squatter Homes on Mennonite Land"

Back from Arusha

"Landscape as seen from the MAF plane"

We have just returned from a Swahili language course in Arusha at MS-TCDC, a Danish run school. Our journey was made on a MAF (Missionary Aviation Fellowship) flight. We were thankful not to have had to drive as it is at least a 12 hour drive. It was a small plane that was full with 7 passengers and was a great flight. The return flight was on an even smaller plane and we were the only two passengers.

"Monkeys were fun until they jump on your roof at 5 am" 

Now back to the language course. It was a tremendous opportunity and experience.  We were in a class of 5. We were well matched and worked well together. It was a lot to learn in a very short time but we were surprised at how much we absorbed. During the second week, we were taken to the market, given 1000 shillings each and tasked to buy some food items for the kitchen. Of course we had to bargain for the best price and all this in Swahili! We drove some hard bargains and came back with more produce than we thought possible. Together, Ron and I got 4 pile pile hoho (pronounced like “pill ee” what a great name) which are green peppers, 5 bunches of michicha (greens like spinach), 2 parachichi (avocado) and 1 papai (papaya). Quite a lot for 2000 Tsh, which is less than $1.50. It was a stressful but fun morning.

"Mealtime - table for five at the Cadle of Love Baby Home"

"Linda trying to keep up"

One afternoon our class made arrangements to visit “The Cradle of Love Baby Home – Arusha” which is a short walk from the TCDC.  In Tanzania, the Cradle of Love Baby Home is responding to the cries of orphaned and abandoned babies. Within the region of Arusha there is one other home for infants and toddlers; however, they do not accept HIV positive babies and are often overflowing. Established to provide interim care for infants in need, the Cradle of Love Baby Home creates a safe environment where the babies receive proper nutrition and medical care, as well as all the love and attention they deserve. Since it responds to those found HIV positive, there are times when a baby dies; however, that infant will feel loved and secure until its last breath.  At the time of our visit, they had 37 children all under the age of three. They were delightful and very friendly. We stayed to help feed them dinner which was fun and a challenge to keep up with the demand.

All of the language students went to the “Watoto Foundation” in Arusha which is a school for street boys between the ages of 13 and 18. They are given school lessons in the morning and in the afternoon they have trades training. They can learn to farm, care for animals, garden, or do carpentry, welding, masonry, machinery repair or general construction. Each language student was shown around the site and shops by a foundation’s student. All their activities were explained to us in Swahili. Good work is being done here.

After classes on the final afternoon those who were interested went to visit a traditional healer and to learn some of the local customs and traditions. Two doctors, a nurse and several female students were invited by the healer to accompany him as he performed an examination on an expectant mother.

"Just a little off the top"

Our time in Arusha was three weeks jam-packed with learning. Once more, the phrase “drinking from a fire hose” comes to mind. Now that we are back in Dodoma many of our colleagues are trying to speak to us very swiftly, so we are having some trouble. We just need to remind them to talk “polepole” or slowly. Photo right: Ron used his best Kiswahili to ask: “Ninapenda Kukata nywele kidogo” meaning I want my hair cut a little. But as you can see, the barber didn’t interpret it that way.


The picture below is a colourized rendering of the Land for Life project home drawings done by Teresa Johanessma-Wood, formerly of Mortlach, Saskatchewan. A drawing of the floor plan follows later

While we were away, things have been progressing at the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT). The CCT, as the Implementing Organization, is bringing together several partners for the Proof of Concept (POC) phase of the ‘Land for Life’ project. These partners include: the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) a member church of the CCT, the Centre for Community Initiatives, Grace and Healing Ministry Dodoma (GHMD), Light Up The World, Floresta and Heifer. The Mennonite Church has some land just to the north of Dodoma in Ipagala, where the POC phase of the project could take place. There is also an adjacent parcel of land, for which the CCT may seek title from the District. Next week we will walk the site to see how many houses can comfortably fit there. It may be necessary to find creative ways to address land ownership since the available land is not optimal in size for individual titles – possibly a cooperative structure formed by the beneficiary families could be the answer. In this case, the housing project may change somewhat from the original concept in order to adapt to the local situation.

Mining in Tanzania

We were invited to attend a seminar/ workshop on “Mining in Tanzania” in Dar es Salaam on 5 July, 2010. We learned of the many natural resources that are present in Tanzania: diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper, nickel, platinum, uranium, silver, tanzanite and coal. Mining is the fastest growing sector of the Tanzanian economy but the impact on the environment and the people in the area of the mines is not a positive one. The people are not against mining. They want the industry to grow but it should bring benefits to the people of Tanzania. It was a hard seminar to sit through as proud Canadians. A great many of the reports that were presented were about Canada’s Barrick Gold operations and the harm they are doing to the environment and the local people. It was stated that at one site the tailings pond had leaked and contaminated the ground water. Cattle died and people became very ill and some even died. Cyanide was found to be present in water samples. When the Barrick Corporation was told of this, they responded that the ponds were constructed properly but that the containment mats had been removed by local people, thus causing the leakage. Even if this were possible and true, should they not be responsible to clean up their mess and compensate the injured parties? To further add to our discomfort, we heard how the former Canadian High Commissioner to Tanzania is now working for Barrick Gold. While technically not a conflict of interest, because he waited the requisite one year after leaving his position, the optics are bad.

                                                                                   

We heard from a lawyer representing the Lawyers’ Environmental Action Team (LEAT) who had been imprisoned for speaking out about the damages done by Barrick. He was released on Christmas Day after some Canadians from Calgary got involved on his behalf. He was very passionate in his presentation and obviously wants to see stiffer regulations put upon the mining companies. Barrick Gold has the power and the resources to act in a responsible and humane way to make this right. We hope and pray they have the will to do so, for the good of the Tanzanian people.  Photo (Linda, Ron and John Mapesa, CCT HR Officer, listen intently)

On 6 July, we visited USAID and CIDA to talk to them about a Birthing Assistant Upgrade Course being proposed for the CCT Morogoro Women’s Training Centre. We are collaborating on this course with the director of the Training Centre and the Programme Officer, Women Development, Children and Gender department of the CCT. We also talked about a housing project tentatively called "Land for Life" which CCT is hoping to start with several partners, to benefit the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) of HIV/AIDS affected families. We’re still brainstorming this idea with Dr Ndezi of the Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI), Light Up The World and the HIV/AIDS department of CCT. Theresa Johannesma-Wood, formerly of Mortlach Sk, has kindly offered to do architectural drawings of Ron’s napkin sketches of a small house (350 sq ft).  Beneficiaries will be required to make some 3200 bricks from cement and clay-sand provided. We are anticipating delivering the homes, 1 acre of arable land, solar lighting and some livestock / chickens for around $2000.

We’re looking forward to going to the MS-TCDC in Arusha.  It is a Danish Training Centre for Development Cooperation, originally established in 1976 to prepare Danish volunteers for assignments in Eastern and Southern African countries.  Their mission was later expanded to include language training.  Many of the participants at the TCDC now come for Kiswahili courses.  Thanks to our sponsor, the United Church of Canada, that is what we will be doing, taking a beginner Kiswahili course.  It begins 26 July and ends 13 August.

The weather has been fine for us here.  It is Tanzania’s cold season and the temperature runs about 26-28C during the day and cools off a bit at night.  Although we hear it may be cooler at Arusha when we go for the language course.  We’re enjoying our time here and keeping busy.

Letters From Tanzania

Ron & Linda Locke's House in Dodoma

Greetings from Dodoma, Tanzania. We arrived in Dodoma, via Dar es Salaam, on 28 May 2010. We were warmly welcomed, at a dinner, by the General Secretary (GS) and 10 staff members from the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT). We were each given a piece of material which was wrapped around us to “Africanize” us.

The following week we attended a three day conference, where the CCT hosted 80 bishops from the different dioceses in Tanzania. Some of the CCT staff acted as translators for us as it was conducted in Kiswahili. A great deal of information was passed on and we were introduced to the group.

A couple of days were spent moving into our house and getting settled, and then we were off to Morogoro where we had two days to tour and discuss the CCT Morogoro Women’s Training Centre. It is a great facility which was inaugurated in 1979 by the CCT with funding support from the Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (IODC) Netherlands. It had a larger hall and two more housing units built in 2003. It is used to bring women in from the surrounding villages, for about two weeks, for courses on how to better their lives. We had a brainstorming session with the director to develop a course to reduce occurrences of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), aimed at birthing assistants who do this procedure. We drew up a rough budget and will meet with Foreign Donor Agencies in an effort to secure funding. The second day, we met the Chaplin at the Sokoine University of Agriculture and had a tour of the CCT Chapel on the campus.

Two days home and we were off to Kibaya with the CCT Women Development, Children and Gender Programme Officer for a seminar on gender based violence presented to 40 teachers from remote villages. The schools were closed this week so teachers were free to come for the four days. It was quite an awakening to hear the horrific stories they told about the violence against women and girls in the communities they are from. However, it was very heart warming to see the teachers’ enthusiasm and dedication. They have a very important job and hopefully by reaching the children changes can be made in the future. Note: Teachers in Tanzania are paid 100,000 Tanzanian Shillings a month or approximately $70.50 Cdn.

While having dinner with one of our colleagues from CCT, who heads up the department for HIV/AIDS, we learned about an aids-affected family who is in need of help. The father died and relatives sold their home and possessions leaving the mother, who is handicapped and HIV positive, with 4 children. They live in a mud house loaned to them by a kind neighbour. The oldest son, Mzigo, goes to school and is doing very well in his studies considering the time he has available. He and his brother carry water for their neighbours in order to bring some money in for the family to live on. It was suggested that if they had some land that they owned, they could raise some goats, chickens and have a garden to earn money. We were approached by relatives in Canada, who have young children that want to give their birthday money to help children here. What a good place to put their money – purchasing a small parcel of farm land for this family!

During the same dinner the husband of our colleague, was relating his job to us. He heads up the Centre for Community Initiatives (CCI) whose mandate is to improve the living conditions in slum or shanty neighbourhoods. Ron had worked in Afghanistan, with an organization from Canada called “Light Up The World” so we’re connecting the two groups to see if they can work together to provide solar-powered LED lights in their improved homes.

Besides this, Ron heads up the Information and Communication Department at CCT and is becoming familiar with that position while Linda works in the financial department at CCT.

Ron & Linda in Tanzania

Here we are being welcomed to Dodoma by the General Secretary and Staff of the Christian Council of Tanzania (CCT).