still alive May 9, 2010

I’m doing wonderfully. Sorry that I haven’t kept you updated…

This has been the final week at my internship. I leave tomorrow. I’ll spend three nights in Dubai before I head back to the states on Thursday. I’m really, really excited. I’m at that point where I have said all of my goodbyes so I’m anxious to go. Somehow running into someone again and having the accidental second goodbye is more painful than just hiding in my apartment, packing and typing on my blog. I’ve said goodbye so I don’t really feel here anymore. I’m going, going, gone…

Here’s the cutest goodbye picture I have (though I have many adorable ones):

Before this past week I went on safari. I don’t think I can ever go again. Out of four the safaris in three different countries I’ve been on, this was by far the best. Unfortunately, we saw so much a camera can’t capture including the largest wildebeest migration in the world. 2 million animals! They were crossing the road all around us and covered the landscape for as far as the eye could see. A picture of the group I went with is below. We all knew at least one other person in the group but no one knew everyone until we got there. It turned out to be a really fun group.

We saw “Pride Rock” from the Lion King. Though, after googling pictures of the cartoon, this rock looks nothing like the one in the movie. But I was totally inside the movie when our guide turned on the Lion King sound track and dramatically announced, “THIS. This is PRIDE ROCK.”

We saw all the normal things: elephants, zebras, giraffes, baboons, impala, hippos, etc. Among the animal highlights were: cheetah, black rhino, a 14-member lion pride with week-old cubs, four leopards and a lion stalking a wildebeest. I was such a good cat spotter that they started making Chuck Norris style comments about me, “Stephanie can find a leopard in the dark, blindfolded with her eyes closed.” Here’s a picture of the lion cubs:

Finally, the scenery was UNREAL. A camera could never capture it… but we saw a moonset then sunrise that literally hurt my head with its stunningness. I love how the cloud near the horizon mimics the flat top of the acacia tree:

There are so many more pictures but it takes ages to load them here. I’ll put them on facebook or you can see me in person when I get home (so soon)!! You probably won’t get another blog entry from me until I’m in the states. See you all soon. Peace out Tanzania!

I can get academic credit for this? Sign me up. April 20, 2010

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had this view from your bedroom window for $20/night? Can I go back already???!!! I almost passed out when I found this fantastic place in Nungwi on Zanzibar island. Yes, this was literally the view from my bedroom window. Ho-Ly Smokes!

I’ve seen beautiful beaches before, but I’ve never seen sand this white! Dude, I can’t even tell where the picture ends and the white blog background begins.

I went snorkeling and scuba diving. I would soooo love to tell you more about this, but I have a paper to write and a trip to the Serengeti to plan for! (Holy smokes, I’m the biggest braggart EVER!! Don’t worry, I’ll get mine in about a month when I’m homeless and desperately job searching. And then after a couple more months when I’m working my first 9-5, trying to pay off my school loans on a 10-year payment plan. Wow, how was that for a depressing interlude?)

OK, I’ll tell you just a little about the scuba trip. It was my first one since getting certified in Lake Travis in Austin. It wasn’t quite the clear, see-for-miles, super exotic experience I expected. But, it was pretty freaking cool. I went about 55 feet underwater, the deepest I’ve ever gone… this is toward the end of the range I’m certified for. I saw a million cool things but the top five (ok, six) list goes something like this: endangered green sea turtles, four eels (all super gross… don’t worry sis, I took some pictures for you. Oh, and I’ll be sure to get some pictures of bats outside my house tonight and hyenas on safari next week. Your three favorites…), some sting rays, lion fish, octopuses and the illusive indian ocean walkman. So cool.

I was the only one on the scuba trip with the instructor. (It’s the lowest of the low season, which means I got some pretty sweet deals.) For better and for worse, he was QUITE a character. Lets just say he is a scuba instructor who smoked at least three cigarettes on our hour-long break between dives. And guess where he’s from. No seriously, live it up with the smoking stereotypes, because he’s from France. He left five years ago, went to south africa and has been traveling up the coast getting temporary scuba jobs ever since. He’s trying to make it up to Egypt in the next year. The next stop is in Kenya. Oh, and every time we got out of the water he would start talking to me about the fish we saw, walk to the back of the boat and pee off the side (still talking about fish), come back with his swim trunks partially un-velcroed and then light a cigarette. Oh, and he kept spitting off the side… like every minute or two. And yet he told me I couldn’t pee in my wetsuit. Jerk.

In stone town (Zanzibar town, where the port is) I was a little disappointed. Most people seem to think of it as an exotic and fascinating historical city. I saw it as a living, moving depiction of what colonizers had the capability to build and the Zanzibar natives don’t have the capability to maintain. I mean that in an economic sense, not in any degrading sense whatsoever. Anyway, it’s super, super run-down (and I saw more ferrel cats in one evening there than I’ve probably seen in my whole life). They are really old buildings, but if they were old buildings in greece, they would at least be cleaned and maintained if they were still in use. This was the view from my bedroom window at the place I stayed (again for $20/night… just thought I’d point that out :) ).

OK, and here’s one that’s a little closer to what people think of when talking about stone town in Zanzibar.

The Upside of Mosquito Bites April 12, 2010

Once a mosquito bites you enough times it fattens up and maybe even gets a little sleepy. Either way, they become much easier to catch. After four bites in the last hour of writing cover letters, I’m ready to take this mosquito on!!

smells like austin April 11, 2010

Sorry it’s been so long! This may be the story of my life until I get home. I’m working on homework and job searching and getting licensed and finishing up my internship tasks. So, I’m keeping pretty busy. And on top of that, I want to make sure I get some more travel in! I plan to go to Zanzibar this weekend, on safari in two weeks, then to Dubai for three days before I come home in a month!

But, I still want to keep you updated on life here in Tanzania! It’s been so fun to have so many loyal followers experiencing a little bit of Tanzania along with me.

So, for your reading pleasure: Smells Like Austin.

I don’t have too much to say on this one. Mostly, I was ordering lunch the other day. It was at a stand in a dusty street which cooks “chips mayai,” steak fries and eggs made into a giant too-much-to-eat pancake. The “stove” was a dilapidated metal screen on top of an open barrel with a fire from thick sticks inside. The spatula was hung from a nail in a tree. The roof was rusty sheet metal resting on poles made of tree branches.

As I was digging through my purse to pay the cook the equivalent of $1 (McDonalds can take their dollar menu and shove it), when I was suddenly transported to Austin. More specifically, a Saturday night on the town in Austin. Even more specifically, I was in the Red River area, not 6th street or the warehouse district. I know it was Red River because the alcohol smell was of cheap hard alcohol mixed with cigarettes and there was no perfume to mask the scent of sweat. As I enjoyed the brief moment in downtown Austin, I got excited to look around and see where the smell was coming from.

I looked up to see one of the dirtiest men I’ve ever seen standing next to me. He obviously hadn’t showered in at least a week, had visible dirt covering all of his clothes, was barefoot and drunk.

Ah, Red River, how I miss you.

…OK, not that bad.

Adventures in Saadani April 5, 2010

Saadani was wonderful. I contemplated staying another day. But the $20/night game park fee plus the $20/night lodging fee, just seemed like a bit too much… especially when I’m planning a few other trips before I leave.

Anyway, it was immediately obvious that Lynda and I took this trip in a MUCH different way than most tourists take the trip. And it turned out phenomenal. We missed out on swimming in the beachside pool at the fancy lodge (I took this picture for my mom… check it out, mom!):

Instead we stayed at the budget lodge where the shared bathroom had an all in one toilet/shower drain:

It also only had electricity from 6-10pm. No air conditioning. My room had a concrete floors with peeling green paint, a giant bed with a mosquito net and a plastic table and miniature garbage can. The curtains were hung with with wire and were immobile. There was no restaurant or usable kitchen. We saw a rat run into the “kitchen.” And yet, the place was completely adequate for sleeping, which is the only thing we did there.

We arrived on public transport, unlike the 15 other groups of visitors that had signed the guestbook before us. On the way home there were at least five live chickens on the bus at once… no doubt making the trip into the city to become easter dinner.

It became obvious pretty quickly that Saadani, our destination, was a very out of the way place. We spent about an hour wandering around the bus station area looking for the Saadani bus. For a while we weren’t sure if we would make it. Every time we asked for the Saadani bus, people would say, yes, the “Sudani” bus is over there… And that was clearly a different bus than we were looking for. And when I told my supervisor I was going to Saadani for the weekend, she didn’t know where it was! Although the game park is named after Saadani village, the park has only been around for five years, so there are only two lodges and one tour guide company, and the game is not very dense.

At the bus station, in our search for the Saadani bus, I caught a thief who was unzipping Lynda’s bag and reaching inside. I, first of all, never expected myself to catch such a thief…my mother worries that I’m not observant enough about these things. (Aren’t you proud, mom?) And second, I had no idea what my reaction would be should I ever catch such a thief. I’m proud to say that my natural reaction was to physically pull the man’s hand out of Lynda’s bag (to ensure there was nothing in his hand), yell “what are you doing?” and proceed to shove him about a yard to the left. Then, prepared to make a scene, I asked Lynda if she had everything from the pocket of her bag. She said yes, so I let it go… but, if she said something was missing, I was ready to chase him down and make a scene. (This is one of those countries where the people enforce theft laws more than the police. I’ve heard stories, and once saw in Zambia, someone being attacked by locals after stealing on the street. Kinda cool, kinda creepy.) After telling this story, let me reinforce something I probably haven’t said enough (or maybe at all). This is a very safe country. I live in a very safe neighborhood. The bus station, much like an inner-city train station in the states, is a good place to get pick-pocketed. You have to watch your things carefully, just like you would in the states. However, in the states I would have worried that the thief was armed… here the most someone would have is a small knife, and that’s unlikely. The other difference here is that people are usually just trying to feed their families not buy drugs or have a fancy house… I think that is less often true in the states. And finally, I should point out, that very little crime here would be shocking to you as a form of crime. The only one I can think of is that in some rural areas limbs of albinos are used as part of a “traditional medicine cure.” Outside of that, people pickpocket and break into houses. Many beat their children. There was, in the 1990′s, an attack on the US embassy. These, while abhorent, are not shocking forms of crime. Tanzanians would be shocked to hear about types of crime in America. Because, quite frankly, people here are NOT serial rapists. People do not kidnap and hide young girls in basements for years. Kids do not bring guns to school. These types of crimes are unheard of here. Wow, sorry for the giant rant. I just know that all of Africa gets such a bad wrap sometimes because of the crime in South Africa and the fighting in Sudan. Most of Africa is very peaceful. Anyway, the story continues…

Once we arrived it was beeeaaaaauuuutttifffulllll! The landscape (don’t miss the rainbow):

The wildlife (baby hippo):

And most of all the people:

There’s so much more but I don’t think you want to read it. And I don’t think my hands want to type it! There are some more pictures on facebook. Thanks for being part of my adventures! There will be many more in the next 38 days… until I arrive in Austin!

Saadani April 1, 2010

I, once again, will be away from the computer for a while. I’m going to the nearest game park to Tanzania… still a 4-5 hour dala dala ride. I don’t know who came up with this trip, but, a friend has passed the idea on to me. I get the feeling the information has been passed along for some time… and I feel lucky to be in the loop. Someone figured out how to take the 4-5 hour dala dala ride (like a giant van, really) which only leaves once each day, to a village called Saadani. From the village I will take a piki piki (old crappy motorcycle taxi) into the game park and to some rustic lodging on the beach. There is no kitchen so I will bring my own snacks and water. I can go to a nearby hotel to book a river boat safari. Lynda and I will stay two nights… I may stay one more. If I can’t be with my family on Easter, I can’t think of a better place than a rustic seaside cabin in a remote area of the only Tanzanian game park which borders the ocean…. just me and God. The only thing that freaks me out a little is that it is inside of a game park. You know, wild animals? I guess no long walks on the beach…

I guess that’s how it used to be for people all the time. No wonder Africans seem to have a greater fear and awe of the wildlife than Westerners.

I’ll post in a few days!!! Happy Easter!

Scolopendra cingulata April 1, 2010

The centipede below, which I so humbly named “caterpillar,” can apparently inflict more harm than any spider in Tanzania, and maybe more than any snake too. It can cause necrosis, in some cases leading to amputations. It has an incredibly painful bite which requires an immediate trip to the hospital and a dose of antivenom. Fun. It’s never killed anyone though, so that’s good, right?

I found this out when the neighbor girls were over looking through my library (courtesy of the Brown family). (I’m keeping the library until it’s time for me to go… then I will let the girls keep a couple books and donate the others to WAMATA… but the library works out quite nicely for now.) Here’s a picture of the girls. They love, love, love to read these books:

The girls are fascinated by my computer. Every time they ask me a question I don’t know the answer to, we look it up online. In the process, we also have a mini computer lesson, which is pretty cool. I always feel lucky for opportunities to make an impact in my free time, which sometimes feels more valuable than the impact I make at my internship. We were having a “blog” lesson, but the girls didn’t seem to be paying much attention. Finally, when I shut my mouth after a few minutes, one of the girls said, “the bug there, it is dangerous.” So I scrolled back up. Apparently their sister was bitten by one a while back. She went to the hospital immediately and suffered no long-term effects.

Like always, I googled “tanzania, centipede” and it didn’t take long to identify the scolopendra cingulata. The funny part is, the only information I could find was from people in the UK who keep these as pets! It baffles the mind. Seriously, if you want an exotic pet, get an iguana or a parrot or some saltwater fish. But, centipedes? What genius came up with that? Even better, who is getting paid (not fair trade, to be sure) to seek out dangerous centipedes in the Tanzanian forest, box them up and ship them? And what on earth does that person think about the developed world?!! Do they think the caterpillars will be eaten? That they have some medical purpose? Or do they actually know that some rich white guy thinks he’ll get some sort of weird bragging rights by keeping dangerous African bugs as a showpiece in his livingroom? It would be one thing if the bugs were at least pretty… For example, the caterpillar below which is sweet and humble and eats leaves (and Brian told me not to touch):

So, the information may be a bit skewed toward “pet owners”… but apparently these centipedes can slice up your skin just by climbing on you. Also, they eat cockroaches and mice. Haha. Soooo gross. Anyway, I don’t plan on seeing any more of them. They are apparently uncommon to find around here, especially in houses (lucky me!).

why i use a mosquito net even when i don’t see any mosquitos around March 28, 2010

So, what’s Stephanie doing in Tanzania anyway? March 28, 2010

First and foremost, I am IMMENSELY better. The medicine side effects combined with the illness was not good there for a day or two. But, I am almost 100% now. Today I will finally leave the house to buy some cereal, juice, crackers, and the most important thing… toilet paper! Lets just say I’m glad I was well-stocked before this past week.

Now, on to more important things. Some of you have asked me about what exactly I do here. Haha. I guess I haven’t given you a lot of detail on my efforts at WAMATA, TASWA and Mikocheni Hospital. Part of the problem is that things are much less structured here than you can possibly imagine. So, sometimes a project is started but not finished. Sometimes a project is never intentionally started but somehow happens. Sometimes I think I have approval and then I don’t or (more often) I think I don’t have approval and then I do. So, I’m not really sure how things will turn out or what all will be accomplished in the end. But, I can say that some projects are moving steadily forward. I do feel accomplished and useful. The connections with TASWA and Mikocheni are things I nurtured after introductions from my supervisor. And all but two things on the list below are ideas I came up with myself, asked questions about, advocated for and brought to fruition. Imagine how many other projects I thought of starting that for some reason didn’t work out!

WAMATA

1) Researching and applying for several international grants and maintaining contact with prospective granters. Teaching the Executive Officer the rules of the game for maintaining contact. I’ve also given WAMATA some great ideas for other fundraising techniques and encouraged them to organize a meeting about it (they met a couple weeks ago and I wrote the agenda for the Executive Officer by his request. :) ) We will hold a meeting to create a financial plan and calendar for the future as well.

2) Starting a Girls Empowerment Group for teens. Currently there is about a 6:1 guy to girl ratio in the youth group. None of the girls lead activities and few make comments. Clearly the girls need a forum where they feel comfortable. Along with this, I have discovered creative ways to help encourage other counselors to get creative and assertive in making things happen when they see a need. I’m hoping to help one of them start a kids group.

3) Teaching the Executive Officer how to perform basic functions in an excel chart, setting up forms which will automatically calculate information which has always been hand-calculated in the past, typing and editing formal documents, including the annual report.

4) Developing measurable goals for the support groups for people living with HIV/AIDS and preparing simple evaluation tools which can be used to assess progress across years. I’m super excited about this one. And especially jealous of any future interns who may get to make use of the data. How exciting! Wow, I feel so vulnerable. Now you know the full extent of my nerdiness. Come on, go there with me. It’s fun.

5) Will propose, as a team with the Executive Officer and my supervisor, a job description for the next intern.

6) A number of small research projects to determine evidence-based practices with sex workers, orphans, etc. I continue to discover that WAMATA is doing everything right. Which is pretty amazing considering they mostly act on professional judgement, based in compassion and social justice. Maybe I give this whole goals-objectives-methods-outcomes-outputs-organizational chart-logic model-strategic plan BS a little too much credit. (I hope Haxby isn’t reading this because with her instinct-based-clinician perspective, she’ll never let me live it down. Oh, PS, Haxby, I accidentally took one of your forks to Africa.) According to the research, WAMATA is doing a damn good job with almost no resources.

7) My current baby is a project to help people like you get more in touch with WAMATA–a website! As I’m sure you know, this has sooo many benefits—to you and to WAMATA. But, understandably, it’s sometimes hard for staff here to comprehend those web-based benefits. But, I finally have approval to help WAMATA Dar set up a website (WAMATA headquarters supposedly has one… but it’s not working and no one can track down the guy who was paid to “make” it). I’ve gotten us approved for an online volunteer from UN Volunteers and I’ve received 7 applications from people who want to help us create an open-source website for free! So, soon I will be managing a volunteer. How fun. I actually wonder if that would be a really fun job for me in the future… managing volunteers. Anyway, we will include all sorts of information and an online donation option (this may take a bit of legal figuring, but I think we have options). Anyway, that’s what I was going to work on starting Wednesday, when I got sick.

TASWA

1) I pretty much just go to meetings. But they are the executive committee meetings for an agency which is just coming (back) to life. So exciting. I do speak up in these meetings. I think they were a little hesitant toward my feedback at first because I’m American and young. But they seem to appreciate my ideas now and I can even help pull the meeting back on track sometimes (this is QUITE a task here as the group is still coming into their own).

Mikocheni Hospital

1) Shadow the counseling nurse for two five-hour slots each week. During infrequent and irregular breaks from clients, we staff certain client situations. She will ask me questions about techniques and we share ideas. I bring in books and hand-outs which she plans to share with other counseling nurses. She answers my medical HIV/AIDS questions. She is obsessed with social work and counseling and always wants to learn more. I love it!

2) I’ve created some forms for them. Currently they only document medical information about their counseling clients, not mental health, systems or counseling session info. They are not yet in use… I hope they’ll make it into circulation. I may need to help the nurse advocate for this. They are: an intake form, counseling log and referral form. I also brought materials about specific counseling techniques and a suicide risk assessment.

Writing this list is like therapy for me. I really have made a contribution here and feel good about it. It’s been a struggle to fit all the pieces together. With my supervisor being gone and the Executive Officer having a different educational background than me, the internship has involved a little more advocating than I would have liked. But, such is true for most worthwhile efforts in life. I still think these placements, especially for international students, are too dang short. But I won’t complain too much because I’m excited to have my MSW in a couple months. :)

Meh. Part III March 25, 2010

It has come to my attention that some of you are worriers. I understand perfectly, I am one of them also. That’s why, last night after writing those blogs and failing to go to sleep, I started webmd-ing my symptoms. (For those who don’t know what this is, it’s an website where you can list all of your symptoms and it suggests types of ailments you may have.) All of my worrier friends must know what a terrible idea that is. But, I wanted to have some ideas if I was to go into the doctor because medical care tends to be a bit more self directed here than an American may expect. For instance, a doctor may ask, “what do you want to be tested for?” or “what do you want to do now?” or “do you know what medicine you want prescribed?” Under certain circumstances those may be asked in the US also, but not as often. Anyway, I prepared myself. And I started feeling worse again… so I went into the dr around 10pm last night. I went to a hospital which often serves an international population. They come highly recommended from my expat friends. The facility appeared clean. The doctor was thorough and knowledgeable. The facility is listed on the US Consulate website as a good place for US citizens to get treatments.

I was thoroughly tested and just have a bacterial stomach bug. I’ve started taking antibiotics and will surely be feeling better soon. This time I didn’t see the nurse open a fresh needle package, so when I asked her about it she immediately threw out the one she was holding, got a new one, let me inspect the package and then opened and used it. How sweet of her. She also got my vein on the first try which is rare for me even in the states! Also, I have about a million people here checking up on me: Stephanie, Cooper, Lynda, Ali, Fred, Solomon, Peter, Kadope, Marian… I’m literally getting texts like crazy from people offering to bring me something or take me to the doctor. In fact, last night Solomon waited at the clinic for me until after 2am! What wonderful, wonderful people I know here.

Moral: All of you worriers, I appreciate that you care so much about me. But stop worrying! :) It’s not good for you.