Down to Work

I remember when I was smugly sitting on my couch back in Toronto/Mississauga and I would read other intern blogs from various points of interest across the world. I would think, how come no one is writing about logframes and RBM, or site visits, or needs assessments, or SWOT analyses (?) ??? Today it occured to me that I have never really written about what I am actually supposed to be doing in Tanzania or have I written about what Pat (the other intern) and I do during the "work" week.

As most interns or people who have survived foreign placements know, what they tell you before you leave, never quite measures up to what happens when you get here. Part of that is the Canadian government's fault (the proposals for funding of interns are due almost a year before the actual intern sets foot on foreign soil and a lot can change in a year...just ask George Bush), some of the blame rests on the host's organization as most of them write proposals with a best case (a.k.a how can I get the most money out of the donor..) scenario, the rest of the blame I would have to say belongs to the donor community in general and the ridiculous hoops organizations in the South have to jump through to get money.

According to my contract from Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning (HITAL) I am here to:

1) Do advance research for a documentary Humber is having made in February about their five-year project in partnership with MUCCoBs. This is supposed to include filming "interesting events" at the various regional centres. This said camera travelled with me from Toronto, weighs about 40 pounds and came equipped sans tripod.

2) Visit various regional centres to compile statistics in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of this project to CIDA (the Canadian International Development Agency)


3) Preparing for a lessons-learned workshop to present the highlights and lowlights of the project and use findings to prepare recommendations for the reformation of microfinance policy in Tanzania

4) I am sure I am leaving something out...

According to what I have actually been doing I am also responsible for:

1) Supervising exams (OK so far just one)

2) Counting lizards (so far about a million)


3) Attending presentations about pesticides (OK so far just one)

4) Taking photos of campus for the school calendar and prospectus (about 50 photos)

5) Editing reports, while refraining from reading with a Canadian brain (1 report and 1 procedure document)

6) Surviving daladalas (on average one daily)

7) Suffering from culture shock (daily)

8) Speaking really bad Swahili (ditto above)

9) Buying bananas (ditto above)

10) Observing the behaviour of wild dogs (nightly)

11) Laughing at the silliest things (which I would like to say I really really excel in on a daily basis)

I am slowly working on getting things done as outlined in my contract, but as I am sure everyone who has visited Africa already knows...things here move at a different pace. Think molasses in July :) An internship really is what you make of it...and everyone in the end benefits from the experience of living and working in a new country within a new culture.

On Monday (November 19, 2007) , Pat (hi Pat!) and I visited the MUCCoBS Regional centre in Arusha and had a chance to sit down with the centre's director and chat about the centre's activities. One really interesting thing we discovered is that the centre, acting as a consulting firm invited by the community or an NGO (Non-Government Organization), visits various regions in Arusha (there are five districts) and does a business assessment. They compile a list of businesses they feel will be viable. A group of community members is then formed to assess and select which activities they are willing to engage in and the Arusha centre is then responsible for training the members in how to conduct the business/activity. Some of the successful businesses that have been started, with the help of the Arusha Regional Centre, include: Bee-keeping/honey production, fuel-efficient clay stove production, brick making, soap making and turkey and sheep keeping.

After our visit to the regional centre we were "abandoned" for three hours by our MUCCoBs escorts. At lunch time (1pm in Tanzania), they let us out of the car in front of a restaurant, said "This is a very dangerous city. There are a lot of thieves. Don't even take your mobile phones out." then proceeded to go and get some nyama choma for their lunch. Pat and I ended up eating at a place called "McMoody's", which was kind of like a scene out of "Coming to America" except in the sequel, Eddie Murphy returns to Africa and starts up his very own McDonaldsesque restaurant. The signs promised "The Best Burger in Africa"...now there's a tall promise :) The burgers were great....if you closed your eyes...the fries even smelt like McDonald's fries. Yes...like the silly tourists that we are we couldn't wait to hit the closest McDonalds (or semblance of such) for a fix of trans fatty acids :) I refrained from getting the elephant (tembo in Swahili) burger...but there's always next time.

For the rest of the three hours we walked up and down the same street, we didn't have a map and didn't want to get lost and visited electronics shops, saw mosque shaped alarm clocks (useful for planning your prayer-filled day), bags of Skittles and M&Ms (sadly we didn't purchase such luxuries), and went into a beauty supply store to view the $14 bottles of L'Oreal shampoo and and the $12 stick of Mennen and Lady Speed Stick deodorant. You really can get everything you need in Tanzania..you just have to be willing to pay for it. Sadly this also goes for health care, education, and most everything else necessary for a peaceful, healthy, and productive life.