Though I'm going, going, going I'll be coming home soon

Our last weekend in Tanzania. Our last weekend of not knowing if we'll wake up and have electrcitiy/running water or not. Our last weekend of sun (apparently the weather at home blows?). Our last weekend with some amazing people. Our last weekend of what has been a rewarding, challenging, incredible, learning experience. We decided to spend our last weekend in Kigamboni. It's about an hour away from where we had lived for our 3 months in Dar. Kigamboni has some of the nicest beaches I have ever seen and is away from the hustle and bustle of the busy city. The rest of our group has either gone back to Canada or gone away to Tanga or Nairobi for a visit - Both of which are long bus rides away from Dar, and boy do I hate the bus. Jen and I opted for our own little weekend getaway to relax and reflect on our time here. So far I've spent a lot of time reflecting on sleeping. On Friday I had my last day at Ardhi University where me and another student gave a presentation about what we had worked on for the past few months there. I presented some of the maps I had made and explained some of the issues unplanned settlements are facing. Here is one of the maps:

The map shows the location of unplanned settlements (slums) in Dar es Salaam and areas that are especially prone to different kinds of flooding. The unplanned settlements in flood-prone areas was the focus of our research at Ardhi. How to improve the building quality and material of homes and businesses in these settlements is the focus of one of the PhD students we were working with. Pretty neat stuff, huh?!

 Jen has been busy making a curriculum for an orphanage here. I think she wrote about it in a previous blog.
It has been a pretty uneventful past couple weeks as I have been busy finishing my work at Ardhi and Jen has been busy with curriculum. Oh, one of the cats that lives at the place we are staying in Dar had kittens and then got hit by a car 2 days later. A few of the students have been faithfully feeding the kittens with syringes and little bottles with milk formula in them since their mother has gone to cat heaven.
Here are a few pictures of me and Ardhi...

Welcome to Ardhi.

This is "Chips maiai"/what I ate for lunch every day at Ardhi. It's french fries and egg mixed into one delicious concoction. All for only 1,500Tsh ($1 Canadian).

Joel and Jerry

Joel and Kibassa

Kihila and Joel

Joel and Deanna presenting at Ardhi

Joel and Kibassa chatting.

Wamama Kahawa

As we are heading into our last two weeks here in Dar Es Salaam, Joel is more busy than every at Ardhi University, finishing up his research and map making with the PhD student Kihila he is assisting, and I have been spending my days at a local coffee shop working on the creating a year long unit plan for teaching alphabet letter recognition and phonemic awareness for a preschool called Kidzcare (see below).

The coffee shop is called Wamama Kahawa (Kawaha = coffee in Swahili, and Wamama = the women, or mamas, who roast it). Almost every woman is a "mama" here.. at least married women I think. I may as well not have a name, or a first name in any case, as I am always called mama Joel at our guest house. it is customary to be called by the name of your husband until you have a child, and then you are called mama _______________ (name of first born).

 The interesting thing about living in Dar Es Salaam is that everything occurs outside, in the open air, or under a grass / banana leaf thatched roof. There is a complete lack of walls in public "buildings".  Restaurants, coffee shops, pubs, stores (or dukas) all have a roof but no walls, and their business just seems to spill out on to the streets, so much so that it is often hard to tell where one shop or restaurant ends, and another begins. Everything is outdoors, and there is so much happening in the streets, hordes of people walking and biking, and four lanes worth of traffic fighting to squeeze down a two lane road. Now I am getting off topic, but as a side note I have been thinking about the openness of the community, and the lack of formal walls (or any walls) in public places, and how that is such a stark contrast to the GIANT cement walls that surround many homes here, topped with electric fences, barbed wire, metal spikes, broken glass, and sealed off by giant metal gates. (Gates which are guarded and alarmed of course).  I realize that often it is the foreigners who live in these homes, or wealthy Tanzanians...and that quite honestly the less formal and informal houses here have the same lack of sides and walls as the public buildings in the community. Anyways,the heavy duty super walls are just a contrast to the inviting atmosphere of the shops and local places to eat.  They send a clear message to those passing by, and are anything but inviting.

Back on track... Wamama Kahawa is one of these beautiful outdoor places, and as I found out after a few visits was started by a few parents from the school where I just spent time volunteering at (HOPAC) as a means to provide local Tanzanian women with a business, but also taking measures to do so in an eco-friendly way.. Those two reasons alone gave me motivation to go there, but I must admit the amazing smoothies and sandwiches (and coffee) are almost reason enough.
Their writeup on their website (http://wamamakahawa.wordpress.com/) explains their mission best:

WAMAMA KAHAWA COFFEE ROASTERS

Wamama Kahawa Coffee Roasters is a social business that was started in Tanzania with the goal of offering freshly-roasted, old-fashioned Tanzanian coffee, while creating dignifying and enabling opportunities to unemployed Tanzanian women through fair wage and skills training in the simple but sophisticated art of hand-roasting coffee.

One of the mamas roasting coffee on site.

It is places like Wamama Kahawa that I will especially miss when we leave. How is it already Mid-July?!

Kidzcare preschool

We are just back from four day safari (we will try and blog about that in the next few days), and now facing our final month here in Dar.

Over the past two months we have had a chance to visit (and host at our home) a dozen children that live in an orphange called Kidzcare. I have enjoyed getting to know these children, and spending time playing games, watching them dance and sing (which is incredible), and learning more about their stories. Ontop of the dozen children that live at KidzCare, the orphanage hosts and funds children who need operations (often recurrent operations). The children get treatments they need, as well as a clean and safe place to recouperate. Canada day was our latest chance to visit, here are a few photos..

Time to count.. moja, mbili, tatu.. one,two,three

BEST FACE EVER

Believe it or not, I did acheive the same pose as the guy on the left, but the camera just did not capture it.

Such a great smile.

Us..and the basketball haha.

The most beautiful mango tree that is outside of their house. A great shady place to play.

KidzCare is run by an incredible woman named Mary (and her husband Robert) who have raised nine children of their own, in countries such as India, Tanzania, Russia.. you name it, they have spent time there. Now they have been in Tanzania for just over 10 years and have started orphanages around Dar Es Salaam, and are in the process of  building preschools at each orphange. (Students do not start kindergarten until seven years of age here, so preschool is for 4/5/6 year old's.. the equivilent to our Kindergarten.)
The students at the school are not the children who live at kidzCare, but are 90 children from local villages around the orphanage. Preschool is not manadtory, but gives children a head start on their learning, as the education system here waits for noone. If by grade 7 you do not pass your comprehensive exam (covering any and everything that has been taught within the past seven years) they will not be allowed to go on to secondary school. These schools are an attempt to give students a leg up once they enter kindergarten. It is Mary's dream to have one school for every color of the rainbow (their school uniforms are a t-shirt in the school color) and so far she has built red, orange, and is in the process of yellow. The school at Kidzcare has two classrooms, and has been in use for a few years, though until this month they were just bare cement floors, plain walls and not a single book, desk, chair, writing utensil (aside from chalk and a chalkboard for the teacher.) The teachers have also not been trained formally, though Mary is sponsering them to undergo some formal training this summer. She expressed that they are in great need for units and lessons to be taught throughout their school year. Having just finished my Bachelor of Education with a minor in Curriculum Development I got very excited at the opportunity to jump in and work with Mary and her current teacher to help build curriculum for the school. It is hard to believe that we have only one month left here in Dar, and I already know that it will go too fast.. (how is it July 4th already?? Happy Anniversary Joel, by the way) but I am excited to have this new project to work on for my final few weeks here. I will be working on units to do with teaching the alphabet and beginning literacy, as well as a physical education unit, including personal health and hygiene.
The classrooms are basic (though with cement vs. dirt/muddy floors they are quite luxurious compared to many classrooms here), but they have the most beautiful walls. Mary just hired an artist by the name of John, who is painting just about every square inch of wall in the classroom. It is their way of making the most of their space, as well as compensating for not haivng books. The result is the most stimulating and inspiring classroom I have seen. Her idea is to "teach from the walls", and I will be trying to use the murals as the basis of the lessons and units I will be creating for the school..

The talented artist.. It only takes him ten days to paint each classroom.