Settling Down in a Place of Peace

Beautiful sunsets over Lake Victoria, welcoming smiles from the locals at work and at home, roosters crowing and cows moaning day and night, the smell of burning trash--countered by the sound of singing schoolchildren in the morning, and the regular water leaks and floods in my house, are a few of the observations/experiences that come to mind in my first few weeks in Tanzania.  I’m nestled in a 2 bedroom house with a private compound in the rocky terrain of Mwanza City, just on the southeast side of Africa's largest lake in northern Tanzania (TZ for short).  It’s the lake zone and the average temp is 75 degrees this time of year, every day!  So cool and fresh to be back in East Africa, the land where I spent part of my childhood, as a World Bank/expat kid attending school with other Wazungu (white people) and visiting game parks to see wild animals; only now I’m an adult with a full-time job at an international non-profit agency working on humanitarian relief and development projects.  I am setting out to learn how development works and how to be a part of this participatory process with local partner agencies on various OVC/HIV/AIDS and livelihood projects.  
I never imagined that I would return here, let alone have a job here, but I am very grateful to be in this wonderful place having spent the last couple years looking for an opportunity to use my gifts and past experience to serve others.  Now the door has been opened and as I walk through it, I will give my best, giving thanks to God and my family/friends who helped pave the way, recognizing there will be challenges ahead with plenty of contradictions and hurdles, as there is with any sort of human development process in that it’s never linear.  However I now have the Peace Corps Dom. Rep experience to build on, with all the past struggles I overcame during that period, coupled with the inward journey I took over the last 3 years and I can only say that the timing seems right.  I have a sense of direction and purpose here so that feels good.  I know this will be hard at points and joyful at other points, but that's how life is anywhere I figure.  I will mostly be learning program management skills and then if all goes well, be transferred to another country to develop or support health programs.

I’m not sure if one could classify this new experience as taking a big risk, but working in TZ with an NGO is kinda like a new Peace Corps experience (yet more at the institutional level), leaving many of my comforts behind and being unable to control or predict many things within a new culture and a new land.  In a sense it’s a process of letting go and embracing even the little things that are so different from US culture.  For example, listening to the cows not only moo but also moan on a daily basis (I think b/c they are trapped in little pins) is a bit hard to handle since they are directly in back of my house on the other side of the hedge, and I can smell the manure, but I try to keep a sense of humor and imagine that the moaning is due to a flatulence problem and I wonder if one could trap the methane gas and use it to power my stove, that would be amazing!  Anyhoo, I’ve gotten used to the burning trash since there are no garbage trucks that come by and I’m starting to adjust to my limited meal choices because there are no large supermarkets here… good thing I know how to cook a few different meals.  Actually the tilapia from the lake here is super tasty and super fresh!

The house I moved into is very spacious and I have an awesome day and night guard (required by my employer) who watch over the place-- along with my trusty dogs named "Crocodile" and "Cheetah", but there have been several water leaks so far, including one that flooded my kitchen during the night!  Maybe it’s a test, but it’s all good since I’ve been through the P-Corps and know what it means when things don’t go smoothly as I am surrounded by a new culture/people.  I have a good landlord and there is a good admin person who both tend to any domestic problems right away.  All in all, I’m happy and have been quite healthy.  All the water leaks were finally resolved today and the gardener/caretaker to the house helped me with a garden in my yard, where I will be planting some veggies this weekend, using local compost as wellJ  I’ve been learning how to speak basic greetings in Swahili, and the national staff seems to appreciate that, especially when I can say “what’s the news” in 10 different ways.  Actually, one driver I work with got a big laugh when I meant to say “I read my book today” but I actually said “I read my butt today” ha-ha!  Always fun learning new words, especially with words that sound alike but have a totally different meaning J  I am now taking Swahili classes, learning "pole-pole" (poh-lay-poh-lay) [slowly but surely].

Socially, the scene is pretty low-key.  There are a few night clubs and occasionally ex-pats will get together to catch up and share the latest events and just hang out.  The second weekend here, I had a chance to go dancing and hang with a group of other foreign development/ medical workers, along with local Tanzanians.  I try to hang with the locals as much as I can and had a chance to play “football” (soccer) a couple times with some kids in town and also play in a game of ultimate Frisbee with another group.  The kids especially liked it when they scored a goal on me through my legs… my excuse is that it was almost dark and he shot at close range!  I even had a chance to run some laps at a local school around a group of Indians playing cricket, so that was fun and they were all super nice.  Overall, people here are really friendly and are more than happy to help when I struggle to learn a new word in Swahili or simply greet me with a smile. 
There are several things I really admire about the Tanzanian culture.  They have a history of very strong national unity, mostly rooted in the ujamaa (villigization) experiment from the 70s and 80s, where everyone was taught Swahili in schools, and people lived communally and shared their resources; a legacy of their first president, Julius Nyerere. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-nye.htm   Unfortunately, there was difficulty in putting everyone on equal footing, and the capitalistic multi-party system stepped in its place in the 90s, which brought its own problems of wealth disparity, debt to foreign investors, and poverty.  Nevertheless, the people here are mostly upbeat and TZ is known for being a “haven of peace” (hence the name Dar es Salaam), in which there is broad acceptance of immigrants, refugees, and people of various faiths [the country has just as many Muslims as Christians].  Here in Mwanza, it’s common to see a woman in a hijaab (headscarf) or niqab (face veil) walk by, and just behind her is a group of western dressed youth just hangin’ on the streets... many of whom are unemployed.   There are places of worship for Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, and many other small sects dispersed through Mwanza, sharing the space in peace, which is really cool, especially today as Ramadan officially ends and Muslims are celebrating with feasts across the town. You definitely get the feel that this is a place of tolerance and multi-culturalism, alongside poverty and an economy largely based on agriculture.  Although there are about 120 tribes in TZ, (most people in Mwanza are Sukuma.. hence the name "Sukumaland"), there is a strong identity in being a Tanzanian.  

So all in all, everything is going well ("kila kitu salama" as they say here) and I really enjoy working for such a reputable and partner-focused agency and being in the presence of such a loving, peaceful, and warm people.  Many more pictures and stories to come!