Little Bits of Life

February 13, 2008

After my parents departure, I returned to the village for some “real” work. Life and work in the village has its ups and downs, definitely many challenges and chances to be stretched as a person with each circumstance.

School:

Since the second week of January, I have been scheduled to teach at the primary school. I had my lesson plan ready and was excited about teaching nutrition in Swahili. However, when I went to school on my scheduled starting date, there was no one at school. The teachers forgot to inform me that the district education board decided to add one more week to Christmas vacations! So, there was no school that week. Another week, in the beginning of February, I returned to the school to teach but was informed by the teachers that school is closed that week. The teachers were helping the government register villagers for voting. In order to earn an extra income, the teachers helped with the registration process. Apart from the teachers and dispensary staff, there are few educated individuals in the village to carry on that work.

Finally, this week, I got to teach! I prayed lots and really enjoyed teaching. However, on my first day, instead of teaching the 2 periods that I was assigned to, I ended up teaching 4 periods due to a misunderstanding of the period lengths. I finally understood that the first bell means the starting of class, the second means that one period has finished and another is starting and the third bell is for break time. Poor grade 3s and grade 4s got so bored because it was such a long class!

On the second day, I taught grade 5 and grade 6. They were very smart and understood everything. Thank God also, that I was able to teach very well with my limited Swahili. I did pray a lot beforehand and trusted God in guiding me. That day, the boy who sounded the bell probably fell asleep because he forgot to ring the bell, so I only had 15 minutes to teach the last class.

I remember walking into the grade 5 class and thinking that there were relatively few students in that class. Everyone indeed thought that it was a small class, but when asked how many students are in that class, it was 45. The grade 6 class had 120 students. Many students sat on the floor since every seat was taken. I remembered growing up in Canada where the class size limit was 30 students per class. Here, there really is no limit in class sizes. Although sometimes naughty and playful as normal children, the students in the class were really attentive and listened well despite the crowded classrooms and poor lighting.

Dispensary:

The nurses have found that some children have come to the dispensary with oedema (swelling) in their arms, legs and faces. This may be a sign of Kwashiorkor (a kind of Protein-Energy Malnutrition (PEM)) which means that the child has had chronic lack of protein that caused abnormal metabolic changes in his/her body. As a result, I am recently researching about Kwashiorkor and suitable dietary interventions. I wish to produce pamphlets on Kwashiorkor, other PEM, and malnutrition disorders such as anemia (it is prevalent in the village) and hold classes for mothers of malnourished children in the months to come.

Clinic Day:

The clinic day this month was as usual (weighing and recording growth charts), except that I have started a list of children whose weight status is in the grey and red zone (underweight and malnourished zones). I intend to have home visits for these children and their family.

If you are in Tanzania, as you meet more people, you will quickly realize that the names that people give their children are quite interesting. The popular names are Neema (Grace), Yohanna (John), Ruka (Luke) and other Christian names. Some people name their kids Zawadi (gift), or Baraka (blessing) which are all good names. However, there are those who are named Shida (problem) and names like Sitaki (I don’t want) or Tatu (Three) which in my opinion are not the most positive names to bear. So on Clinic Day last week, we called out children names that made all of us in the room couldn’t resist our laughter. We called out, Kikwete (the name of the president of Tanzania). When we asked the Masai mother, “Where is Mkapa (the name of the former president)?”, she responded with, “Oh! He is at home!”. She had named her older child Mkapa! Another name we called out was Baba Yake (His father). I am absolutely intrigued with the names that people give their children.

Home Visits:

As mentioned before, I have started to keep track of specific children that are considered malnourished or have other health problems who come to the dispensary or to Clinic Day. I am starting home visits to help me understand the situation of the family and plan nutrition education for the family to improve their family’s nutritional status.

I have done two home visits this week. One visit was to a family where the child, Sofia, 4 years old has Juvenile Arthritis (JA). She has had arthritis for 3 years already. Her hands are deformed with joints that are crooked. Her mother brought her to the clinic because her left shoulder joint hurts. She could not lift it up. I visited her and explained to her mother and father that I wish to come often with more information about JA for them. The family understands that she has a bone problem and had gone to the town hospital for check ups before. However, they have no idea about the actual disease and what they can do for their child. Sofia is a beautiful girl with big bright eyes. It is hard to think that she is in so much pain everyday.

The Rain:

I am more than happy to report that we have had 3 consecutive days of rain in the village! Everyone is overjoyed since collecting rainwater is a clean source of drinking water for the families. They don’t have to collect water from the river. For myself and the few others that are planting a garden in the village, we are thankful for the rain to feed the seeds and allow them to grow. As for all the villagers, it is a blessing for their riverside farms. In this rainy season, most families have moved to the riverside to farm. They grow mainly rice in paddies, corn and beans. I have been praying for rain for 3 months and thank God for each rain in this dry place.

The rain is also a basis for an adventure. When it rains, the road out of the village becomes a muddy pit with the water forming a river on its sides. There is a path nearby the village where cars easily gets stuck, so sometimes you can’t even leave or enter the village by car. On Tuesday, on my way back to town, I got a lift with the dispensary administrator. We came to this stretch of mud and looked at the bus that got stuck in the mud. It completely blocked the road in front. So the driver decided to follow another’s track and pass off-road. As he started off, the car got completely stuck in the mud too! So all the men got off the car, and many other men came since they were waiting for the bus to get de-stuck. They got muddy as the rain poured and the water rose to the knees to cut tree branches, collect rocks and dig the mud to help the tires get out of the mess. We tried several times with many men pushing the car, and it didn’t budge. During this time, our friend from the village came with his daughter to help out. The daughter came to sell maandazi (fried bread) and chai (tea). She was smart, making a business out of the two vehicles’ muddy situation. I thought it quite amusing. I looked concerned since I just watched this event but everyone just told me, “hamna shida” – no problem. Well, there were enough men to help that all the women just stood by the side and watched. I soaked my bare feet in the mud and felt much warmer than staying in the car. We finally succeeded to get de-stuck but got re-stuck again. It took 2 hours of trying and by that time, many people, men and children have come to watch the show. Finally, the village tractor came to tow the bus and our vehicle out of the mud 50 meters into safe-to-drive road. By the time we were free, we followed the extremely slow bus for an hour until we were safe to pass. Our normal journey to town took less than 2 hours, but that day, we took 5 hours. The real adventure has just begun in the rainy season.