First Visit to Usolanga

September 28, 2007

Some days are as monotonous as other days, where one day does not have any apparent differences from another. Then, there are days when unexpected adventures comes your way sweeping you off your feet and turns you upside down with excitement at the end of it. The latter is my experience today and I hope my days here will be filled with numerous days like the latter rather than the former.

Today is Ijumaa (Friday) and it is a special one from the very start as it is the day Sacha and I visit Usolanga, the village where we will be working for our 9 months here. We will both work in the dispensary (clinic) that the Diocese of Ruaha (DR), our local Anglican church partner has set up in the village. It is the only health centre in the village and probably the only one for surrounding villages. Sacha will be a primary health worker who promotes and teaches about basic health such as sanitation, HIV/AIDS, common diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, etc. As for me, I will be working as a community nutrition worker. My focus will be on improving and educating locals on healthy eating, prenatal/antenatal/postnatal nutrition (nutrition for pregnant mothers), infant nutrition and dealing with endemic nutritional deficiencies. We will also be teaching a 4 weeks health module in the local primary school.

Before leaving Iringa town, many things needed to be done. The doctor at the dispensary has asked for us to pick up medicines for the clinic. Our house in Usolanga is also under renovations and so 10 sacks of cement powders were coming with us on the journey. After filling up our gas and picking up Tiny Freddy, a 17 year old boy who was visiting his relatives in Iringa, we were off, about an hour after we had left the house. So, in our LandCruiser (which is the best car to have here), we had Andrew at the wheels, Sacha in the front and Joe, Tiny Freddy and myself sitting right behind the cement. The distance was 70-80km from Iringa on a bumpy descent from the mountain as Usolanga is based in the valley. The road was actually pretty well done, although rocky. The scenery, however was astonishing. Vast fields of withered trees standing amidst yellow sand with the mountains in its backdrops. As we went up and down the road, different angles of the vastnesss revealed another treasure in itself. We passed by many Maasai tribesmen and women herding their goats or cows. Waiting for a large herd of cows crossing the road can be the same as waiting for a train in Canada. There were sometimes cows trailing one after another and we couldn’t see the end of them. We waited for 10 minutes until there was a gap between the cows to force our way through. About an hour or so into our trip, rural mud huts with thatched roofs sporadically appeared along the road. Literally every child would stop and wave because we were mzungus (white people). So, we’d just wave back. The ride was more than two hours and Tiny Freddy was teaching us some Kiswahili (language of Swahili).

When we reached our village, it was noon and the sun was its hottest. We were greeted by the construction workers who are fixing our house (they chased out bats from the house – It’s a whole other story, I’ll tell you later) and the doctor of the dispensary. The doctor kindly guided us on a tour of the dispensary that was not very busy at the time. There were only a Maasai family, a man and some women. The dispensary itself, which I hope to go into details about once I start working there, is actually quite nicely designed concerning what it could potentially be used for. However, we could see that each room was simple and very understocked. There was also a separate region just for Mother-Child Health, so concerning pregnancy and infant care. We also met Elnora and Atu, who are the nurses at the dispensary at the moment. Atu has a beautiful daughter who screams at us every time we look at her and runs away laughing. Sometimes, I just feel like I’m a really likeable monster to the children.

Andrew took us to do a little visit around the village. The village is a picture perfect of an African village on a postcard or a textbook. The land was flat and full of yellow sand. The houses in the village were closely situated mud huts with thatched roofs. Few houses have a tin roof. The biggest structure is the Catholic church which is quite grand, cemented and painted pink. I hope to visit the inside one day. As for our church, the Anglican parish in town, I love it so much because walking into this mud building with open windows was like seeing an artifact. The whole church was just one big room in grayish clay with rows of clay mounds for benches. The inside is nice and cool when outside would have been 35C that day. It is such an archeological finding! If you’ve ever set foot in it, you’d be convinced too.

Already, by this time, we have gathered a lot of attention. The interns from 2 years ago were the first foreigners working in the village. So, by now, there is still few exposure to mzungus. A band of children started following us as we made our way to visit the pastor’s family. The pastor is away to study in a university, probably in theology. His wife and five exceptionally beautiful children are still here and we paid our respect. As we left the house, we’ve noticed that more children has joined our faithful band of followers. They followed us nearly 20 minutes as we walked back, picking up more children along the way, making all kinds of noises, and repeating every Swahili word I said. By the end, we had almost 30 children behind us. Andrew made a speech about who we were, what we will be doing in the village and sent them home. Still a lot of children stayed with us, until we drove off.

It is again customary in Tanzania to bring people or things back with you to town as needed. So, we had a fair share today. Ali Kana, our carpenter was catching a ride with us and so were a villager, John Isaac, his wife and son, Cherlega. John Isaac is attending his younger brother’s wedding and brought a wonderful gift for them, which will also keep us company on the way back. He brought a big black and white goat, tied inside a basket. Poor goat, whom Joe decided to name Hubert cried, “Nyaaa!!” as strong as a baby with 2 lungs. Hubert didn’t bother much along the trip, just squirted loudly a few times to let us know that he was uncomfortable. So, 8 humans, one goat and a large battery started on our way to Iringa.

Halfway through the ride, we passed a motorcycle and two men who seemed to have some roadside trouble. Our passengers advised us to turn back and see what’s wrong. That’s what’s good about living in a collectivistic culture. Everyone stops to help. As we returned to them, all the men got off the car and were conversing, figuring out what to do for 20 minutes. The hind tires had a puncture but was completely broken, so duct tape wouldn’t work here! After lots of thinking, a plan was devised and I consider it the simplest one there is. Everyone, including motorcycle crams into the car! I hopped on the front with Sacha and Cherlega who is tiny for his age. He is 8 years old but is skinny and looks like a standard 5 year old in Canada. Holding him throughout the ride, I noticed he coughed a lot. I do hope it will not be anything serious in the future.

In the back were 6 other people all bended in different shapes around the motorcycle and the goat. It must have been quite uncomfortable, but everyone just seems to chat away like it’s nothing. Hamna shida (No problem)! You can do the math of how many people and things were in the LandCruiser that day. But it was fun and a great adventure to tell. We later found out that one of the man we had saved by the road was the mayor of Usolanga. One of those days isn’t it?

A 2 hour ride back to Iringa took nearly 4 hours and we were tired by the end of it. However, I realized that being with Andrew and Miriam, our country representative for EI, anywhere in Africa, will feel quite secure. They just have a sense that everything is just fine. I am glad to have them as our mentor, here in Tanzania.