Documentary Production

Tuesday 28 May 2013
Production of a Documentary

I am back in Ifacara now.  The return trip took only 2 hours 20 minutes for the 36 miles, 25 minutes less than the trip to Mbingu last Wednesday.  This trip included six nuns and myself, no mechanic.  I was worried with the rough road there would be a flat tire or some mechanical problem from the rough dirt road between the villages.  Within 30 minutes of the trip, during conversation with sister Senorina, I mentioned my concerns.  Our driver was an elderly nun of about 60 who I had not met.  She has been driving for the convent for over 20 years and had been trained to perform light duty mechanical work including changing tires if needed in route.

During the trip, they stopped to chat with a couple women on the side of the road. After pulling away sister Senorina said the two women were of the Masai tribe.  She explained the Masai were a nomadic people who raised cattle and farmed having a nomadic range throughout Kenya and Tanzania.

The 6 nuns and I were invited by father Kayera to the bishop of Ifacara`s house for lunch.  Fried fish, sautéed pumpkin leaves, ugali (the flour and water mixture), rice and oranges were served.  After explaining my diet, I only ate the meat and vegetables.  I was offered beer, wine, soda or water to drink, drinking only water.  After lunch I had a brief meeting with father Kayera as he wanted to know more about myself and why I was in Ifacara, Tanzania of all the places I could have picked.  I explained to him my desire to have a civil engineering career with relations in environmental or water resources engineering with humanitarian organizations in a developing nations.  He was familiar with the three organizations I mentioned such as USAID, UNDP and World Bank.  

Father Kayera drove me to the parish guesthouse.  As he approached the left side of his truck to drive, I instinctively went to the right side as a passenger.  He had gone to the right rear door to open for me to place my backpack inside.  He looked at me strangely, laughing, saying this is not America as I immediately noticed my error seeing the steering wheel where I thought I was going to sit.

As previously discussed last week before my departure to Mbingu, father Kayera said he could give me room and board in exchange for volunteering with a project.  He later took me to meet the parish priest.  Upon talking with him and telling him my aspirations and having roughly 11 more nights in Ifacara, we discussed the possibility of designing a documentary with photos and videos using my camera to show to various religious and governmental organizations in the US for fundraising opportunities.  My first candidate to show such a documentary could be to the Unity church I joined in Greensboro last fall. Some of the members whom I had gotten to know were eager to hear about my trip and asked if I could do a presentation upon my return to the US at the end of the summer.

So far, I have hesitated to take any pictures due to the rampant abject poverty I have seen since leaving Dar es Salaam. I have been warned by some local people about taking photos.  I had researched, before leaving North Carolina, taking pictures of the general population could be very offensive and potentially dangerous, so I have refrained.  I mentioned my hesitation to father Kayera and the parish priest.  They are going to provide me various individuals including themselves to take me to the many humanitarian projects happening in the district over the next 11 days.  Locations may include people`s houses, water supply systems (hand pumps), schools, mental hospitals, HIV/AIDS clinics, the leprosy clinic, retirement centers, agricultural areas.  This is going to be very interesting and enjoyable to be able to be escorted to various places to document things I have seen as others will be able to see also through the lens of my camera.  

I have been situated in a simple room in the parish compound with meals provided on a schedule.  This close to the equator, I think only 6 or 9 degrees south, the sun has minute variations through the seasons with time between the rising and the setting of the sun.  The sun rises around 0630 and sets around 1830 year round.  Tanzanians use a different clock than in the US or other countries I have been to.  The beginning of day light, say 0600 is 0000 in Tanzania time, therefore 1200 noon is considered to be 6 hours after the beginning of the day or 0600, evening 6 pm is 12 o`clock Tanzanian time and midnight in the US is 1800 or 6 pm, and 2400 is back to the beginning or first light of the day.  In US time my schedule for meals will be breakfast at 0700, lunch at 1200 and supper at 1830.  In Tanzanian time the meals are served at 0100 for breakfast, 0600 for lunch and 1230 for supper.

During the evening meal at the parish center, I learned the inhabitants of the guesthouse were all priests of the Catholic Church 200 meters south of here.  They all had come to Ifacara to study various professions, several of them learning to be doctors of general medicine while others were doing research of equatorial diseases such as malaria and typhoid.  All 8 of the priests witting at the supper table spoke English.  I was thankful to be eating something completely different than a variation of a three egg omelet for breakfast, lunch and supper.

I ended my evening walking for about an hour through the village along the main road and a couple of side streets.  Sister Senorina had warned me about walking around at night and the dangers of me being a Mzungu (foreigner).  She asked if I was afraid to be by myself after hearing some of the dangers which could happen to me such as being harmed or robbed by the poor local inhabitants or taken hostage by the Muslims from my known associations with the Christians.  My response was that I could not be afraid of venturing out alone although I could be diligently and acutely aware of my surroundings and the people.  I said I was here to learn about the culture and its inhabitants, not to be sheltered with the fear something bad could happen.

Londo Primary School

Monday 27 May 2013
Londo Primary School

I slept late this morning waking at 0800 for breakfast.  I do not believe they have ever had a guest with as strange a diet as mine.  The kitchen staff has been very accommodating on my protein and vegetable diet.  Each meal has consisted of free range chicken egg omelets, usually with onions, tomatoes and carrots.  The omelet is accompanied with a side dish of sautéed pumpkin leaves at every meal except two where the veggie was sautéed cabbage and this evening, okra in a tomato sauce (very delicious) with a whole cucumber.  Sometimes a meat is served, small bits of chicken or beef.  A bottle of water is included in every meal.  

After breakfast, I mentioned to the kitchen staff I would be eating in the village for lunch.  Riding sister Mech`s bicycle into town, I passed a thatch roofed open walled hut with a pool table underneath.  I turned around approaching the hut.  Two Tanzanian`s were playing with 12 others sitting on homemade benches under the thatched roof watching the game of either 8 ball or 9 ball.  One asked me to join, pointing to the bench for me to sit and watch, probably the only one who spoke very little broken English.  After watching half a dozen games, the same asked if I knew how to play and if I wanted to play a few games.  Of course I said yes.  Their pool hall was within 30 feet of the dusty road with an occasional farm to market truck hauling plantains or rice.  During the hour I was there, 3 herds of cattle were being driven by a couple farmers toward the direction I had come from.  After winning 2 of 3 games, I gave them a TZS $1000.  The pool table was of a commercial type with a coin slot to drop the balls for each game. As I started walking away, not expecting any change, the English speaker approached me with my change of 800.  The total cost for 3 games had been 200 (13 cents US).

I had taken a few pictures during the primary school tour on Friday.  One of the teachers asked if she could have the photos for her class.  Without thinking, I asked if she had a memory stick or flash drive to load the digital files onto…Huh, what`s a memory stick? She asked.  The school of 442 has no water system or electricity.  Sister Mech and I rode our bikes to the next larger village and had found a place to print a photo from a photo shop.  The photo shop, being run by a generator with a computer so I could view which photo to print, had an electric photo printer capable of printing a maximum 5” by 7” quality photo for a cost of 5000 (US $3.00).  After hearing the cost, I only printed the best one photo.

I returned to the school this afternoon on my way back to the convent.  The school had already let out for the day.  Friday, the teachers (all female) had told me they lived in the small houses in the center of the school yard and for me to stop by anytime.  I was invited in teacher Gama`s house.  She was cooking dried beans and ugali.  Ugali is nothing more than a boiled paste of flour and water cooked until thickened.  In my trips through the villages, I have seen the ugali being scooped up in small amounts by hand then partially dipped into a vegetable or bean mixture, then eaten.  I politely declined her invitation to eat with her saying I had just eaten at the convent.  I had lied as my true reason for not eating was the high carbohydrates of the ugali.  The ugali was being cooked on a small coal burning stove on the concrete floor.  After removing the ugali from the fire, she excused herself to let the other teacher know a visitor had arrived.  Within a few minutes, teacher Maria appeared.  They were both very happy to see the photo sister Mech had taken of the two teachers and I in one of the classrooms.  Maria invited me to join her in tutoring several of her students in Swahili which began at that moment.  The three students were waiting as Maria and I arrived to the classroom.  

With English being taught in the Tanzanian school system, the majority of students are studying to become trilingual.  The students initially arrive at school knowing one of the 120 tribal languages and are then taught the national language Kiswahili and also English.  Between tutoring the 3 pupils in their Kiswahili, giving them writing assignments, Maria then would also tutor me with a vocabulary list and simple phrases of Kiswahili while the students quietly did their tasks.  As each student (2^nd and 3^rd grade) approached for their writing to be critiqued, Maria would stop with me and focus on the children.  We continued our tutoring lessons for an hour and a half until the sun set.  

With no light switches to turn on, the day ended as darkness approached.

Gravity Water System

Sunday 26 May 2013
Gravity Water System

I was given the day off today.  A bicycle had been loaned to me by sister Mechtilda.  She is the plumber of the convent compound.  She told me she was excited to be taken away from her daily plumbing duties to give me a tour of the two surrounding villages the other day.  Her current plumbing job was to dig a ditch for a water line connecting the dispensary building to a new x-ray building under construction for the future hospital.  She left yesterday to take a trip to Dar es Salaam for a plumbing seminar.  She explained to me contractors were hired to drill bore holes for drinking water.  Without proper supervision, the drillers did not drill the bore holes deep enough, making the wells go dry as the water table decreases during the dry season.  The seminar in Dar es Salaam will educate her on how to make sure the drilling is done properly to ensure the wells are drilled deep enough to obtain water year round.  

During the several meals we ate together, sister Mech would help me with my Swahili while I helped her with her limited English.  For example, we were eating supper at 2100 Thursday night when she said “the day before tomorrow, I will go to Dar es Salaam for a plumbing seminar”.  She did not understand my laughter.  I began to explain to her the day before tomorrow is the same as the day after yesterday, or today.  She learned the day after tomorrow and the day before yesterday.  She helped me with my numbers to 20 along with various eating utensils and table implements.

Sunday evening, I had a meeting with the mother general, the retired mother general and sister Senorina, the head counselor.  The convent compound has future plans of bringing in gravity fed piped water from the Udusungwa Mountains National Park, in the vicinity where their hydropower comes, but from a different river source.  The sisters showed me a three phase project which includes phase 1 of constructing the intake system and water treatment system, phase 2 of 250 mm piping 12 km to the convent and the villages, and phase 3 consisting of the distribution system.   Their costs for the 3 phases are US $910,000 of which they have asked for funding from various sources including the Rotary Club of Tanzania, other sister country Rotary Clubs and Rotary International.  

Prior to the meeting, I mentioned having teachers in the US who were familiar with grant writing to seek funding from the US government to fund humanitarian projects in developing nations.  They liked my ideas of possible alternate means of financial support to reach their intended fundraising goals.  Coming back to Tanzania to assist in the convent`s water engineering project could be a possibility after graduation as I pursue the Fulbright Scholarship.

Currently, there is no engineering project in Mbingu at the convent for me to volunteer with.  I decided to go back to Ifacara and volunteer with father Kayera with a wastewater drainage system the technical school is working on.  I am leaving Tuesday morning with Sister Senorina and six other nuns on the same treacherous road which took 2 hours 45 minutes for 36 miles of travel.  I had intended on volunteering at the orphanage again on Monday but the sister general said I could take the day off and do as I please.

The Orphanage Center

Saturday 25 May 2013
The Orphanage Center

This morning I volunteered at the orphanage for three hours with the 30 children.  In the beginning they children called me baba (father) Eric but were quickly corrected and began calling me kaka (brother) Eric.  There were three who latched onto me very quickly and would hold my hands wherever I went, one on one hand and two on the other.  Shortly after arrival, those of walking age gave me a tour of the area surrounding the compound including the gardens and the livestock areas, one of the workers joining us to keep account of everyone.  There were many acres of bananas and plantains.  Arriving back at the orphanage after walking for about an hour, the daily wash was being taken off the clothes line.  All the clothes were washed by hand every day by the workers of the orphanage and hung to dry.  I was asked if I wanted to help fold the clothes.  One of the little boys, maybe three years old, who stayed by my side holding my hand, would hand me individual pieces of clothing from the clothes pile for me to fold.  At noon, I was dismissed to return to the spiritual center.

Muslim Aggresions toward the Christians

Friday 24 May 2013
Muslim aggressions toward the Christians

Today I was given a tour of the two villages in the area, one village, Londo, just outside of the fenced convent compound and another, Tandali, 5 km upstream of the river.  The area has a population of ~25,000.  The only modern electricity provided by a hydroelectricity plant from a dam 12 km from the convent is available within the convent grounds and not in the village areas yet.  The construction of the hydro plant was only finished last December.  Before December 2012, the available electricity came from generators and were used by only those who could afford the expensive form of power.

Another nun, Sister Mechtilda (or Sister Mech) met me for breakfast this morning to give me a tour of the areas outside of the convent.  We first rode to the village primary school where all the children were outside in recess.  Upon riding our bicycles into the school yard I could hear the message of “Mzungu” being spread and within minutes all the young students were in a state of excitement and loud chatter with my arrival.  We were invited into the principal`s office for a brief introduction as the 6 teachers prepared the children for my introduction.  Outside, I could see the kids being organized by grade in long rows, which happened rapidly from previous practiced drills and visitors, as Sister Mech explained to the principal who I was and why I was there.

Stepping outside the office, the principal introduced me to all 442 students ranging in age from 6 to 14.  After the introduction, in unison, they all said GOOD AFTERNOON MR. ERIC, HOW ARE YOU? I responded, I am fine thank you and you?  FINE THANK YOU.  I then began a brief introduction of myself saying where I was from and that I was a student at a university in America.  Some photos were taken then the kids dispersed into the classes.

Afterwards I visited three classes spending about three minutes in each class.  After raising their hands, the students told me what classes they were taking including English, Kiswahili (the common language as there are about 120 different tribal languages in Tanzania) civics, mathematics, history, social studies, and science.  After spending time with the students, the teachers asked if I would like to see the river 100 meters behind the school.  The river was about 15 meters across and has a population of crocodiles.  The teachers explained to me once about 5 years ago a student had been killed by a crocodile.  During the rainy season, the river floods also flooding the school grounds.  The school is forced to close during floods which may last for a few weeks.

My tours for the day ended at the orphanage within the confines of the convent.  After meeting with the 30 children, I sat with the sister who manages the center.  The majority of the children`s mothers had died during childbirth from multiple causes, the main cause of death being not having proper health care in the villages where they live.  If health care is available, the families have very little or no money to pay for the care.  Often when the time for birthing is imminent, the general dispensary (health center) may be 6 km or more walk (or by tractor, bicycle, motorcycle on the very rough roads) away and they may die from the journey while giving birth in route.  If the mother dies in route to the dispensary, the father may continue in hopes of saving the child, although the child often dies.  Nearly everyone has no vehicles.  When the mother dies, the family may already have 6 or 10 or 17 children and can`t afford to care and raise another by a single father or other relatives who are already overburdened by the many children in the family.  The father then may give the new child to the orphanage until the child reaches age 6.  At this age the child goes back to the family; the father or grandparents or an aunt and uncle.  While the child is being raised at the orphanage, the family is required to pay TZS 30,000 (USD $18.75 per year) for necessary incidental expenses.  If the family can`t pay, they may pay through donations of clothes, chickens, cows, pigs.   Some families do not pay at all.  The families are required to make regular visitations to the orphanage so the child will get to know their relatives.  As the orphan reaches the age of 6 the child returns to the custody of relatives.

When the child reaches 6, the orphan is abruptly taken from the orphanage where proper meals have been provided and even modern electricity.  The sister explained when the children have to leave, they do not want to go leaving the modern comforts of the convent behind, but they must return to their families as the cut off age is 6 years old.

There were 22 girls and 8 boys and one child of 9 who remained there due to special circumstances of which I did not understand.  There is one set of twins and one set of triplets.  Since there are no engineering projects going on here at this time, Sister Senorina asked if I would like to volunteer with anything of my choosing, either at the dispensary, the orphanage, or the school.  I said I would like to start off with the orphanage which I will report tomorrow at 0900.

The main areas of the convent compound is surrounded by high thick concrete fences and secured gates with armed guards at the entrance.  The main religions of Tanzania are Muslim (one third) and Christianity (two thirds).  There have been several attacks, kidnappings, and other aggressive confrontations in Tanzania by the Muslims toward the Christians.  Just last month in another village, Arusha (the main city near Mount Kilimanjaro in the northern part of Tanzania), the Muslims bombed a convent killing several people and injuring over 60.  Before this occurred, the convent here in Mbingu had an armed guard at the entrance for only during the daytime, now the convent is guarded 24 hours per day.  From the tour today, Sister Mech explained now that the Muslims have seen me traveling in the village with a nun, the area may not be safe for me to be alone, traveling outside the compound, mainly at night.  She explained I could be kidnapped or hurt since the Muslims know I am associated with the Christians.  My night dreams were plagued by a Muslim attack my first night here.  I thankfully survived as I had hidden in a closet, not to be found.  During the dream, I remember waking to look out the windows of my room as I was hearing noises.  The outside remained peaceful and as I woke standing at the window, I realized my dream was caused by the sounds of the ceiling fan in the center of the room.