Peter and Debbie Become Guest Dependent

Our household, like a struggling African country plagued by pre-colonialism, colonialism, post-colonialism, Imperialism, the Bilderburgers, the Skull and Bones, the IMF and neo-conservative global economic systems, has become dependent on the generous aid of outsiders. 

Margaret, who came here from the bustling city of Bukoba, has helped us to develop.  She brought with her wine, cheese and her youthful idealistic enthusiasm but mostly she brought with her practical skills to help us move forward.

As shown in the picture above she brought certain plumbing skills.  She showed us what this little brush was for and we let her go to town.

We wern't completely sure what to do when the glass bulb in the ceiling failed to light.  We bought candles but Margaret showed us how to do electrical work.

Admittedly our house was a bit dirty.  Margaret changed all that.  She put her development skills to work sweeping the dust from our floors and the cobwebs from our minds.

She washed the dirt from the clothes but she told us that she was learning more than she was teaching.

Alas, we have become guest dependent.  When Margaret leaves---will we sink back into the swamp of pre-development?  Will we be able to continue to follow her example?  Will we be able to take ownership of our own development?  Is this a sustainable situation?   These are big questions.

When will more guests arrive?

Water Water Everywhere

Our water supply is working.  The connection is ours.  We have a veritible Noah-like flood of water.  Our cistern floweth over.  Kudos to Madam Christina, her sister Margaret and the Big Water Potatoes of Kibaya.

The Best Darned Chapatis in East Africa

For those of you unfamiliar with Chapatis, they are flat breads about the size of pita bread.  They are not quite as thick as nan bread but thicker than a tortilla.  We eat them a lot.  Delicious with home-made marmalade for breakfast they also go down nicely with everything from a stew to a fruit salad.  They can be used as a wrap.

Thanks to Auntie Irene's, Recipe Book for Tanzania, and to Fredrik's revised VSO cookbook, Debbie has perfected these little wonders.

I challenge you to make a batch and to tell me how it went.

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups of flour

2 ounces of cooking oil

4 ounces of water

Pinch of salt

Method:

Mix the flour and salt in a bowl

Add water and mix into a fairly thick dough

Knead until smooth

Roll into a circle on a floured bowl

Brush the surface lightly with oil

Cut once from the center of the dough to the edge

Starting from one side, roll the pastry into a cone shape

Press both ends in and knead lightly

Repeat this process at least once more

Divide the dough into six balls

Roll each thinly into an even circle

Heat a frying pan and add a few drops of oil

Cook the chapatis on both sides

Chapatis served with fruit salad, local honey and Tanzanian red wine

Water Woes

We moved in to our new house the day before Christmas Eve.  The electrical fundi and the plumbing fundi (the gentleman who does plumbing repairs with cobs of corn) were able to connect the water pump and get it operational.  We were so happy to have water at last.  We started to decorate with wall hangings and baskets and to invest emotionally in our new home.  We got our clothes hung up and our books shelved.  We hired a wood fundi to construct a clothes line and we put up curtains.  Debbie began to nest big time.

Check out the cool wall hanging.

Then the water supply suddenly ended.

I phoned the Assistant District Water Engineer who did get back to us saying that he would look into the problem and solve it. 

Everything is broken here and the infrastructure is a shambles.  Tanzanians are languid and unhurried and having tea is a top priority.  They seem to know that nothing can be achieved in this life anyway so why bother. 

But we are different.  We want things to work.  We want things to get better and so we strive.

It’s easy for me to promise myself that I will become more laid back but it’s hard for me to follow through after a lifetime of being productive  Ambition melts away though like the snows on Mount Kilimanjaro.  It must be the heat. 

This morning we went to Madam Christina’s house to get her to come with us to the Big Water Potatoes down at the government offices to get to the bottom of the problem.  Madam Christina is filling in for Mr. Ndee, our supervisor, who is off on holiday. 

Madame Christiana’s sister is down visiting from Arusha and she also came with us to see the Big Water Potatoes.  Her English is excellent and she has a very good sense of humour.   She told me that spiritually she felt that water would be connected soon and that all these trials were just a part of life.  We had tea with them before heading down to the government offices.  No point in rushing.

Not surprisingly the Biggest Water Potato wasn’t in his office.  His secretary assured us that our water would be connected tomorrow.  At the office I spoke to another Water Potato, responsible for Water Accounts, on the phone.  He also said we would be connected tomorrow and that he would help. 

Our two Burner Hitatchi Living System

Water is rationed in Kibaya but the water bureaucrats, left over from the old days of Afro-Marxism, are not.  We should have water on Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays.  No one can tell us exactly what time during the day it will be turned on.  We will get a water bill once a month.  A water meter might be installed.

Should I be worried? No way.  VSO Tanzania promises its volunteers adequate housing including a reliable water supply--we signed a contract with them guaranteeing this.  I trust them even after three months.  We know if push comes to shove they will support our need for a water connection.   Almost nothing is more important than access to a water supply and without it our placement here is unsustainable.

Squatters don't plug up as much as sit-down toilets.

(knock on wood)

Christmas Morning In Our New House

Debbie, Margaret and Peter beside the Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas To All And To All A Good Night

Bing Crosby has just finished crooning, “I'll be Home for Christmas.” on the computer.  It's Christmas Eve in Tanzania and Debbie and I will be home for Christmas, if only in our dreams.

We have a plastic tree up and the house has been decorated in minimalist style.  Elaborate Christmas decorating is impossible here.  Being able to decorate for the holidays at home is one of countless examples of Canada's productivity and richness.  I am promising myself this Christmas that I won't take our country's amazing skill and wealth generating ethos for granted ever again.

Our larder is well stocked.  Beef filet, carrots, potatoes and onions will go into a delicious pressure-cooker stew tomorrow evening.  Dumplings will grace the top of the stew and the whole dish with be seasoned with summer savoy and sage. We have tomatoes, green peppers and the biggest avocados I have ever seen for a salad.  The dressing will be made with olive oil.

We also have a small fruit cake and a plum pudding.  I will light the plum pudding on fire and we’ll enjoy it with real coffee brewed from beans we picked up in Arusha.  Something special involving bananas might be on the menu.

We are healthy and happy.  We are together.  Our African journey has been productive and there have been many times when the adventure has left us awestruck.  We have learned much more than we have taught and have met more kind and generous people than we can count.

This is the time of year when I think about 'Christmas Past.'  Maybe you do to.  It is my time for reflection but mostly for nostalgia.

I remember the year our daughter was born.  We brought her home on Christmas Eve and put her under the tree.  The three of us spent Christmas alone in our tiny apartment in NDG.  We roasted a goose bought at Favourite Meat Market.  The day was filled with love.  Life was an endless promise.

I remember all those many Christmases we spent with my parents, my aunt and my cousin singing ‘Deck the Halls’ when the guests arrived, eating the Christmas goose, opening piles of gifts, reminiscing and drinking wine.  Watching our kids dig into their Christmas loot.  At the end of the meal there would be my father's Irish Mist and Drambuie and every year we discussed which was best.

Then there were the years we piled into the car on the last day of school and drove non-stop from Montreal to Nova Scotia with the kids in the back seat.  Christmases on the West Tatamagouche Road were special.  The smell of Ina and Lawson's wood stove heating up the kitchen and the traditional goose roasting in the oven are things I will always remember.

I remember that Christmas in our son’s first apartment.  It was his first time to host a Christmas dinner in his first home.  Our daughter and her husband were there.  I was so proud of my son's new found independence.

There were the Christmases we spent away.  In Korea we were with our niece and son.  We watched Jimmy Stewart in 'It's a Wonderful Life' and ate pot luck.  In China we feasted with our friends and my cousin and his family.  Our friends and family made everything perfect.

Every Christmas has been the best.

 The last few have been celebrated with Debbie’s sister and her husband.  Seeing Debbie and her sister in the kitchen together doing the preparation is heart-warming.  They have become even closer since we moved to Tatamagouche.

I could go on.  I could write about Christmas shopping in Montreal with my friend. There were our inevitable trips to the Body Shop where every year I asked about animal testing.  There were our long lunches of meat blintzes and boiled beef (when it was on) and a bottle of the red at that little Polish restaurant on Prince Arthur.

It's getting late and the stockings are hung.  It's time to find 'All Creatures Great and Small,' the Christmas episode, on the hard drive.  It's time to cut the fruit cake and to open the Glenfiddich.  It’s time to let Siegfried and James transport us to the world of Christmas in the Yorkshire Dales of 80 years ago.

We wish every single one of you a very Merry Christmas filled with peace, joy and happiness.

 

 

Graduates

This picture was taken on the last day of a five day English proficiency and teaching methodology course for secondary school teachers.  The course was  delivered by our five Champion Teachers shown in the first row.

Plumbing With A Difference

As of this writing we are not yet moved into our house here in Kibaya. We are still guests of another VSO volunteer. We are not suffering unduly, however, as our hostess has been very gracious. We have our own bedroom with two comfortable single beds equipped with functioning mosquito nets and a study where we can do our lesson preparation. The house has running water, a beautiful deck and toilet facilities which in this part of the world are luxuries. We can't complain about physical deprivation.

The house that we are to move into was supposed to be ready for us two weeks after we arrived. It is now almost three months later and the renovations have not been completed. I would say that Tatamagouche contractors could have completed the job in three easy days.

One of the problems that is contributing to the three month delay is the skill levels of the local workmen. The plumber, in particular, has certain problems distinguishing vegetables from plumbing materials. As the picture above shows he has used a cob of corn to plug a pipe outside our house. *

We were hoping to be moved in by Christmas but this date has now become a moving target. The plumber is nowhere to be found. I hope he is not searching for more plumbing materials in the vegetable market.

* NOTE TO NOVA SCOTIA PLUMBERS: Please do not start using cobs of corn or other vegetables as plumbing materials. It is highly unlikely that they will meet Canadian building standards and codes.

The Gift of a Goat

It was difficult for us to know what to get as a gift for the happy couple when we and a small group of Mzungus were invited to a Masai wedding two weekends ago. We rejected the usual options of a blender, an electric fondu pot and an Italian espresso maker with built in milk frother and chocolate shredder as completely impractical and impossible to get. There was no contest. A goat was the perfect choice for this occasion. It wasn't on any bridal registry list but our good friend, Mr. Aloyse, had the contacts in the goat market to make it possible for only 35,000 Tsh or about twenty dollars.

Unfortunately we couldn't attend the wedding. We were in Zanzibar assisting with the English Proficiency course that five of our local teachers were taking and so had to miss the big day. We did get our hands some fabulous wedding pictures though.  Can you think of a better way to get a goat to a wedding than in the trunk of a taxi?

Making PIE in Zanzibar

Zanzibar is a place of the imagination like the Serengeti and the snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro.  It evokes historical memories of the spice trade, dark passageways winding through the crowded market, slaves in chains and the caliphs and sultans of bygone days.  It is a fecund mix of Arabia, East Africa, India and Europe.

We were able to spend a week on this fabled isle as part of the PIE Project or Proficiency Initiative in English.  Acronyms rule in development.  The purpose of the project is to train selected Tanzanian secondary school teachers in English and English language teaching methodology. These selected Champion Teachers are expected to pass on their training to their colleagues in a series of sessions that will last until the end of March.

The Champion Teachers were brought to Zanzibar and in very intensive sessions practiced English and were taught methods that will allow them to move away from rote learning corporal punishment and chalk and talk.  The new methods will encourage their students to participate in their own learning.  Our job is to guide and mentor our five Kibayan Champion Teachers.  In order for the project to be successful we must not take control but allow them to take ownership to explore these methods with their colleagues at their own pace.

As it stands now English skills are very low in Tanzania.  If development is to take place and if Tanzania is to take its place on the world economic stage English proficiency is vital.  If this project is successful it will revolutionize the teaching of English in Tanzania.

I'm very enthusiastic about the project but I'm also realistic.  This is Africa and things don't always turn out as expected or planned.  All our fingers are crossed that the enthusiasm generated in Zanzibar will carry over to Kibaya.

Zanzibar is very cool.  I'm not sure I'd like to live there but for a visit it is superb.  It is possible to live an entirely western life there.  Because it is a tourist destination the restaurants and bars are up to international standards.  We sat on balconies enjoying the thirty degree temperatures while watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean.  We sat in beach bars and dug our toes into the white sand.   A wide variety of food was to be had in the outdoor cafes, everything from chicken tikka masala to falafel wraps.  Our home in Kibaya is more authentically African though.  It is so off the beaten tourist track that hustlers and touts are unknown there and an innocence prevails that is never found in tourist areas.