Operation Tech Start

After my amazing experience in Tanzania, I returned to New York and started plotting and scheming for a way to return to Africa. Thus Operation Tech Start was born!

Take a look and you’ll see how we’re nearly ready to launch our computer lab and research the communication practices of the farmers in the rural region of Tabora. But we need your help!!! Are you a computer geek or do you know someone who would like to volunteer in Tanzania? Check out the volunteer description here!

HAPO Ceremony

On our final Friday in Tabora, HAPO held a ceremony to welcome the new children and provide all 24 HAPO kids with new school uniforms, bookbags and shoes. Community leaders including a member from the Tabora Ward District Council as well as the guardians of the children were there to be a part of this very special day. Decorations were donated by the owner of the Tabora Hotel and food was catered from a local restaurant. Indeed it was a very big deal.

Unbeknownst to me and Siwan, this welcome ceremony was also in large part a goodbye ceremony for us, the exiting volunteers. In the photo above the children were nervously singing us a goodbye song.

And then it was our turn to give a speech we had prepared to thank the children, the staff, and friends. We read it in Swahili (thanks Gayo & David for the translation help!) but I’ll spare my non-swahili speaking readers. Here is the English version…

“Before Siwan and I arrived in Tabora we were both always in a hurry, running here and there, eating on the go, having very little time to rest, and working in big office buildings every day. Arriving in Tabora was a very big change for us…and we could not be happier to have this experience of working and living in Tabora.

HAPO is an organization which we have had the pleasure of working with and seeing grow into a thriving drop-in centre for Tabora’s most beautiful children. We are both deeply commited to HAPO as we ourselves have seen the change in the childen academically, socially, and in their general well-being.

We have learned so much during our time here, from the HAPO staff and the children themselves, and we must say a big thank you to everyone. Thank you to Dr. Sekasua and Mama Sekasua for sharing their HAPO vision and allowing us to be a part of its success. Thank you also for their hospitality and relentless kindness. Thank you to Mama Houli for taking on our troubles with a smile. Thank you to Mr. Ndaki and Mr. Mwendapole for testing us in Kiswahili and keeping us on track. Thank you to Bernadete for her friendship and guidance. Thank you also to all of the HAPO staff and HAPO friends who have helped us have fun with their good humour and smiles. Thank you also to Faye and Christine for their fresh ideas and enthusiasm for the HAPO programme – and for not burning down the house when we went to Kigoma!

Last but not least, thank you to the HAPO children. We love each and every one of you. We believe in you. You are very special. You each have unique talents so work hard, listen to Mama Sekasua and believe in yourselves. You will succeed and we will never forget you!” 

Farewell Gatherings

Our fellow volunteer Christine claims that she wanted to make us a nice going away cake. I believe she just couldn’t wait to make Rice Krispy Treats after the rare sighting of both Rice Krispies and marshmallows in Tabora. Either way we were presented with a lovely treat with our names in banana on top “Holly” and “C1″ respectively. Thanks Christine!

And here is the lot of us at our last big wazungu group gathering.  

And here is the Sekasua family, the people who run HAPO and helped make every day a learning day with good humor and an unlimited supply of laughter. On both my behalf and Siwan’s we wish this very special family a heap of thanks and best wishes for future success.

Shoe Shopping with the New Kids

My last week in Tabora as a volunteer, I was fortunate enough to meet the twelve new children that were to double the size of HAPO’s OVC after-school programme. As part of their initiation, each child was to receive a set of school clothes, school supplies and of course school shoes. It was quite the event for these kids who were used to living in tattered clothes day-in and day-out. And it was quite the event for me to see how much a pair of shoes can make a difference in the hopes and dreams of these very good but very poor children.

There’s Christine at the market helping wrangle some of the kids for trying on shoes.

And there’s quiet, shy and very bright Adelina poking her head out from the front of the car on the way to the market.

The Volunteer House Activites

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned the woes of the nice big non-functioning volunteer house in Tabora but let’s start with the picture above shall we. That’s me. And yes I’m sitting on the toilet to demonstrate on how one must bring an umbrella into the toilet to protect oneself from the dirty, cold water that drips from the tank above ever since the fundi (mr. fix-it) fuddled with it in hopes of getting the hot water heater working. And that’s the NICE bathroom.

Another externality of living in such a remote region is the lack of hair salons for white girls. The locals have a plethora of options and most women redo their hairdo about once a week (they look so completely different each time too!). But alas, we strange wazungus have to settle for first time hair-cutters under the lone working bulb in our living room. Here I am making my debut as a stylist on Siwan’s lovely London-layered ‘do.

Pool Party in Tabora, Whoohoo!

Eleven weeks into my stay in Tanzania, the Sparkle Princesses and friends were invited to tobacco friend Marc’s backyard pool. It felt a spontaneous luxury vacation: pool, beer, water polo, itunes playing on portable speakers…aaaaaaaahhhh.

Above are Steve, me, and Jonathan posing in the water.

Teaching synchronized swimming to two of my favorite blokes, Craig and Steve.

The lot of us relaxing by the pool: Bradley, Marc, Christine, Jonathan, me, Craig.

Houston We’re Ready for Launch

That’s Zituni setting a world record for how far she could fire the rocket into the air by the child-inspired force of jumping on the purple pump. This was a loaned gift to HAPO by our friends Steve and Jonathan, the Brits building the new Anglican Cathedral on the main road in town. Thank you so much Steve and Jonathan. As you can see, the kids, big and small, LOVED it.

Jonathan, Siwan and some of the children watch in awe at the rocket’s red glare bursting in the air.

 

Mama Sekasua gives it a go.

And being a big kid myself I had to fire up a bit of fun as well.

Sparkle Princesses Take Tabora

 In our final weeks in Tabora, the HAPO girls or Sparkle Princesses as we were called (because we “brought sparkle” to our friend Steve’s tenure in Tabora), were on a very busy social schedule. From the goodbye parties – not ours mind you - to the welcome back parties for friends passing through, well let’s just say we made good use of the coffee from Arusha to keep up our sparkle. Photos of friends below.

 

Me, Siwan, Sanne (goodbye Sanne!), Bradley, Faye, Christine at Tabora Hotel, surprise surprise.

A big night out at the Tabora Hotel, again. Can’t turn down the chance to do the hankie dance. (Front row: Siwan, Mike, me. Back row: Bradley, Faye, Jonathan)

 

Ride home after the hankie dance night at Tabora Hotel.  From left to right: Mike the wildlife NGO guy, Siwan, Faye, Christine, me, & Steve the builder of the new cathedral in town.

 

Switching it up a bit, the Sparkle Princesses visited the Golden Eagle, an Indian restaurant in the center of town. Left to right: Christine, Faye, Bradley the tobacco guy, me, and Mike NGO man.

Me and Bradley camping for camera

Slideshow for the Watoto

In our weekly meeting last week it was announced that we have received enough funding at this point to double in size from 12 orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) to 24. Thank you to all who have helped make this possible. Your generous donations will provide a daily meal for these impoverished children as well as school uniforms, bookbags and school materials.

But before we integrate the new children into the programme the volunteers thought we should do something special for the children already part of the programme, just for them before they have to share the attention. The kids love digital cameras because they get to see pictures of themselves instantly. So what better gift than a slideshow of them using projector that plays on one of the walls in the classroom. But this would require having a projector. Gayo needed his to run a computer class for the diocese which meant we had to turn to our other group of wazungu friends, the tobacco farmers. Sure enough they came through…with a clandestine operation unbeknownst to the owner of the projector, Hank. Thanks Craig for making it possible. Thanks Hank if you are reading this. Much appreciated. We cried. The children were midly amused.

Me, Craig, Siwan after the tobacco man delivered the goods.

Midly amused by the slideshow

 

Shadow puppets were a big hit

You Can Get ANYTHING in Tabora…if you know the right people

It’s good to know the right people in Tanzania, like Mike. We like Mike. That’s not Mike. That’s Paneesh who runs the Oryx petrol station in town. Mike’s NGO gives him a lot of business with their gas gussling landrovers that take them out into the bush to catch illegal poachers. And that means that when Mike needs a favor, like say purchasing and transporting Tanzanian coffee from Arusha to Tabora while he lived in the bush, favors come through.

However, once we had the world’s most delicious coffee (a description I’d keep even if we hadn’t deprived for 11 weeks of drinkable java), we weren’t sure how we could brew it. It’s not like we had a myriad of modern appliances like a coffee maker. How could we recreate a french press or even a coffee filter?

How about we cut a bottle, line it with a piece of clean window screen, rest it nossle down and let the coffee brew in hot water for a few minutes before we pour it into a cup. Simple enough right?

 Wait, how do we open the cap without the boiling coffee going everywhere?

 That’s me being burned.

Ok, so what about pouring the coffee and hot water into a bottle (in tact) and then pouring through the screen after a few minutes? Oh right, plastic bottles melt. On to plan C.

What if you put coffee and hot water in a thermos, let it brew, and then filter it through a tea strainer into a coffee cup?

 

Wow that was easy. Third time’s a coffee charm.

Back to Tabora

On Monday morning we caught the train from Kigoma back to Tabora. The train was actually in the station at 7:30am, the scheduled time of departure. Impressive. And it left the station at 9:30am. Not too shabby. And then it stopped for no apparent reason multiple times along the way. I was sure I heard a loud hissing sound like we were losing some sort of fluid like, oh I don’t know, maybe brake fluid. The train did jerk a bunch whenever we had to stop to pick up goods from the roadside vendors. Who knows.

As usual my sidekick Siwan and I had no idea what was going on at any particular moment. We kept the door locked and broke out the wine in a box we purchased on the black market of Kigoma. Below you can see our wine glass – plastic water bottle cut with the always practical swiss army knife to make a nice shaped glass albeit rough around the edges. Thirteen hours later we arrived in Tabora and were met by friends at the station. It was a great trip overall, a real adventure.

Waking up early to catch the train home.

Unexpected Day on Lake Tanganyika

After the monkey business in Gombe we jumped back into our ship kidogo (small) and enjoyed the beautiful day with a swim - in a bikini no less (Tanzania is still a rather conservative country) – and preparing Captain George’s catch of the day, a slew of nondescript fish for the big dinner our shipmates had invited us to that night. Siwan’s expression says it all. Ewwwwww.

Halfway through a lovely ride the boat died. Tehari. Kaput. So imagine this, we’re an hour away from Tanzania’s most remote national park, Gombe. We’re an hour away from the nearest city, Kigoma. To the west we can see the Congo. To our east is a remote lakeside village without access to simple things like roads. We choose the village. For the next 3 hours I sat on a rock in a bikini and a kanga (a piece of cloth you drape around yourself in a variety of styles) and sang kiswahili songs with the curious children while every man in the village took apart the engine. Our personal belongings like money, my mother’s expensive 35mm camera, and our passports were in that defunct boat. We kept our eyes peeled to the investigation 50 feet away. Tired and hungry, mind you we had seen not a bite of food all day, we also began to look around for the best spot to sleep for the night. The big rock under the trees by the clothesline looked good. But at last a sweet bibi (grandmother) gave us each 1 piece of chipati (greasy flat bread) and shortly after the boat was in working order, enough so to get us home as the tide came in. Yet the enthusiasm for a fun dinner was lost after the mechanical frustrations, typical for men, and the dinner invite revoked, typical in Tanzania.  

Kwaheri village!

Gombe – oo oo ah ah

It’s slightly nerve-wracking to turn your back on a monkey but luckily these baboons could have cared less about me.  Below are a few more select photos from our 4-hour adventure in Gombe, a truly amazing remote national park.

Siwan enters Gombe.

Baboon with a baby on its back.

Baby baboon and mama baboon hanging out.

Siwan captures a beautiful waterfall.

That’s me, happy to be hiking around for monkeys, a dream come true.

After two hours we found a group of chimps! Here’s the laziest chimp in the group and clearly the most oblivious to the shutterbugs.

Siwan, Joseph, and I take a much needed pumzika (rest).

Is She Seaworthy?

There’s a good size ferry that leaves Kigoma daily for the three hour ride to Gombe (Jane Goodall’s chimpanzee park).  It costs only 2000Tsh or about $1.75. However, once you’re in Gombe you can’t leave until the boat comes back the next day. The guidebooks say that the cheap accomodation choice includes fending off baboons all night. And the high end accommodation costs $500 a night.

So my fearless friend and I met a taxi driver who has a brother who is a fisherman who agreed to take us to Kigoma for the negotiated cost of $120. A chartered boat just for us, what a bargain right?

That’s our boat above. She carried me, Siwan, Captain George and his first mate Jospeh plus our expensive cameras and other valuables. We left before the dukas (shops) opened so we didn’t have any food. But as I so keenly pointed out, we were all in the same boat.

Morning has broken like the first morning…

 

A village along the way. They live completely off Lake Tanganika as there are no roads from where they live to get into town.

Captain George and first mate Joseph

Monkey in My Tree

After a rough go of it on the all-night train to Kigoma (pics below) we arrived in Kigoma and settled into the nicest hotel in town, the Hilltop, around 6am. Siwan and I fell asleep instantly on the full-size beds and woke to vervet monkeys in our tree overhanging the hotel room porch. I didn’t use the zoom feature on my camera to get that shot above. Kigoma delivers!

Here’s the light switch on the train; two wires connected by hand at the right angle activate the power. No one was hurt in the process, promise Mom.

 

Here I am after 8 hours of shouting “ATCHA!” (STOP IT) at the bandits trying to break into our room all night. Thrilled, can’t you tell…