Blog 3/5/19
Its been quite a while since my last post so I thought I might bring you up to speed. Its been quite a challenge getting things going again after my return home from emergency leave and the snake bite. I was out of the area for a total of six weeks with only a week or two in between. Since my return from the hospital in Dar es Salam I have been working pretty steadily on my projects, so here's an update:

The training of our health volunteers was completed. We visited each of the six subvillages and the volunteers used the checklist we created to ask questions of the sickest people. A photo was taken and shared with the local doctor who provided follow on directions. Some of the patients have already visited the clinic free of charge, and this weekend we are trying something new. We are going to the homes of the elderly people who can't walk to the clinic and we are picking them up and carrying them to the clinic in bajaji (a little three wheeled vehicle) where they will be treated by the doctor and returned to their homes. This is the first time this has been tried around here and I'm looking forward to working with our little ambulance service. We have another day long training scheduled in March with the Tanzanian Red Cross coming to visit.

The women's chicken coop project is in the process. Because of the poor nutrition of the villagers the chickens will provide a good source of nutrition year round to the families, as well as a steady source of income. The mamas are learning all about chicken keeping and business operations. We are deep into the planning for coop construction, chicken care, and budgeting. While this is not the exciting part, it is so important for the mamas learn these skills. Because of that, we are moving slowly but deliberately. We are currently working on getting our third construction estimate right now.

Refurbishment of classrooms at the local primary school. This project has been slow in progressing since there are several political offices involved. Of course my six week absence didn't help either. The District Engineer has promised us a new estimate for the repairs of three unusable classrooms. Currently there are over 500 students in just seven classrooms. The refurbished classrooms will provide much needed space.

The farm life. Our Moringa trees are doing well. We planted 18 trees, one of which died after I stepped on it while using the hoe to weed. The tallest is around five feet now and we are thinking of planting more. For those of you that aren't familiar with Moringa trees, they are very nutritious, have many uses, and grow well in dry environments. I taught a couple of classes about them to the villagers and handed out seeds. My corn is producing cobs at an astonishing rate. My plants are some of the first in the area to produce a harvest. That's because it was planted in early November before most planted their own. First time in my life that I am able to just stroll out and pick food that I produced myself. It feels good.

Teddy Bears. Yup, Teddy Bears. I gave out teddy bears to children at the clinic. They were knit by children in the US and provided to volunteers in the field to distribute at no cost. It is organized by the NGO called The Mother Bear Project. The kids loved them.

Okay, that's it for now. There are other things going on like some repairs to my house, and my never ending quest to learn Swahili from my tutor Stanislaus. That's something I should have done a long time ago. Well, I guess it's never too late to try something new.

Photos:
The bajaji arrives delivering some of the mamas to the clinic. Over thirty people came, way more than the ten we were expecting. Not surprising that they would turn out to a free clinic. Many thanks to the doctor for his patience.

Leg wound: While at the clinic a family arrived with two burned children from a lightening strike that killed two in their family.  I watched the doctor treat the burns: removal of dead skin, hydrogen peroxide, antibiotic ointment, cotton soaked with iodine. The iodine soaked cotton dries into a hard shell protecting the wound. No pain killer of any type used, the seven year old didn't cry until the iodine, and then only a tiny bit. That was the smaller of the two wounds.

The mamas from the chicken project (minus a few). They are an enthusiastic bunch getting to know each other and learning to work together. Latisha (in the front looking at the papers) said "we are a family now".

Until next time, Brian

12/28/18, Only a few days left in 2018 so I'd best get a blog out. As most of you know I am back in my village after a few weeks in Dar for my snakebite. It was an interesting series of events that taught me a few valuable lessons, but now I am back home trying to pick up where I left off. That is not too easy to do, even my Swahili took a big drop after the six weeks of not using it (3 weeks in America and 3 weeks in Dar). We were just starting the village medical volunteer program and the primary school renovations before I left. Both will have to wait until after the holidays to get going again because people are very busy right now with the holidays and the start of the rainy season.

Life in a farming community like this revolves around the planting and harvesting seasons. When the rains begin everyone heads to their farms to plant their crops. I'm included in that, while I was away my neighbor had the field around my house cleared and planted with corn. We also planted Moringa trees (photo). This tree meets many of the nutritional and functional needs of the villagers, and grows rapidly in this type of arid environment. The second photo is of a meeting we had with some of the mamas to review the benefits of the Moringa tree, how to plant, and how to maintain. I also distributed seeds to these mamas and the others who showed up later. We also discussed trying to get the chicken coop project started again after the unfortunate death of my previous counterpart.

On a more personal level, my battle with the local mice has entered a new phase. Mice in the house becomes a real problem because they love to destroy my food supplies. I have tried various techniques with limited success. Putting food in containers (never have enough), and mouse traps (never caught one yet). My best luck has been just a bucket with water. During the dry season they would just fall in (sorry animal rights activists). Then I learned to put a stick across the top with food dangling down by thread. That worked good for a while.......until now. Apparently they are not only smarter than me, but pretty big too. The picture shows the bucket with the stick. It pulled the stick to the side and ate the bread. But the tomato has been eaten where it hangs. How could a little mouse reach down that far and eat something round? I picture a velociraptor or maybe one of those hyenas (a very small one).

So my next plan will be much more complex (see diagram). Since it is around Christmas I'm going with the Santa milk and cookie plan. So it sits in the chair and has to have a cup of tea. When it picks up the cup that frees the pendulum which swings striking the bowling ball which slides down the ramp hitting the book which falls over and puts an end to this charade. Thinks he's smarter than me huh?

On a more positive note, I made my first loaf of banana bread. It was delicious, and I ate most of it before I thought to take a picture of it. Not bad for a pan on coal stove if I do say so myself.

From my house to yours Happy Holidays and Happy New Year.

Now where do I find a small chair and bowling ball....

Brian

12/11/18 I figured I would give another post to answer some questions and provide an update on my foot.

We think it was a Southern Stiletto snake. It is unique because it has fangs that extend out of the side of its mouth and can strike from the side, hence the name stiletto. If you remember I never saw the bite and I know it didn't strike full on with two fangs, but it did hit my foot from the side and there is only one puncture wound. So basically I was shanked. Figures I had to run into a gangsta snake.

The swelling on my foot has gone down to almost nothing. The only problem is that there is still pain when it is on the floor, and it turns a deep shade of blue when it is down. They assure me this is normal and that it will decrease in time.

I am currently staying with an expat host family who volunteered to take me in. I'm hoping to head back to my ville soon, but will have to wait until the foot is recovered well enough to get around, and the Peace Corps doctors give me the thumbs up.

I hope everyone is enjoying the cold weather and getting ready for the holidays.

Peace, Brian

12/6/2018 It's been a long time since my last post.  The time has certainly gone by quickly. Since my last post I have conducted training for volunteers from the villages, been to America and back, and now I find myself sitting in a hospital in Dar es Salaam writing this blog post.  I guess I should probably start there and work backwards.

On Tuesday, just after returning from America for emergency leave I was bitten by a snake. This is what happened: my home is so hot during the night that I have to leave the windows open but when it rains the wind blows it right in the house so about 4 or 5 AM I got up to shut the windows. I turned the light on to check for creepy crawlies then opened the door to look outside. The snake must have been just outside the door and I didn't even notice it until I felt it going over my foot. My reaction was to step back which is when I stepped on it. I chased it around the house a little bit until I noticed the blood on my foot and figured out that it bit me. Didn't even feel it. After killing the snake I carried it to my neighbors house and he transported me to the local clinic for IVs, then the district hospital for anti venom. I took an ambulance to the local airport (picture a Model T on dirt roads) and a flight to Dar and here I am. The foot is swollen and painful but I have been trying to move around some. Not sure how long I will be here in Dar, but I don't think I will be heading back to my house until I have recovered enough to take care of myself again.

Travels to America. My step father passed away after some time in hospice care. I tried to make it back in time but it took me five days to get back. I got to see many people during my short time home and I really appreciate the support and love. I was not really aware of how much I needed the physical and spiritual break until I got there. I ended up putting on more than 10 pounds in the 2 weeks. To everyone I got to see, thank you for your love and support. For everyone I didn't get to see, I'm sorry and I owe you some time someday. I will make it up to you when I get the opportunity. May he rest in peace.

Training for the villagers. If you remember from my last post I was going to set up a training for basic medical response for the local subvillages. Well we had the training and it went great. There were 13 volunteers from the villages, my counterpart Peter, the Community Health Worker, and the doctor. I taught basic response and assessment, Peter taught about the 4 classes we taught together in the villages (HIV, malaria, water safety, and washing hands) the health worker taught about nutrition, the doctor taught about maternal health. After six hours of training and team building activities we were ready to start visiting the villages to teach about healthcare and getting the villagers the care they needed. Unfortunately that was just before the travels and hospitalization. The next phase will have to wait until things are going a little smoother.

Well that's it for now. Never a boring day here in Africa. I will keep you updated on my progress as often as I can.
Peace,
Brian

Photos: the foot, the snake, the training, the love of my life.

10/6/18 It has been over a month since my last blog, and what a month it has been. I started this blog while still in the states with the intention of chronicling my time in Africa with the Peace Corps. I promised  people that I would try and keep it as genuine as I could so that they could get a feel for the whole experience. I don't see any reason to hold the latest experience back, and I think that he would truly like to know that people all over the world are thinking of him.

So the reason that I am starting my photos with the same photo from my last blog entry is that it shows Daudi and myself graduating from training together in August. This is important because since that time he has passed away. He went into the hospital with stomach pain, had surgery, and lived two days.  He was born in 1987, had a wife and two children, one three years, and one 6 months.

Far be it from me to criticize the health care system from another country. I think some of my posts demonstrate the conditions that people face, and I do think that the healthcare workers do the best with what they have. The problem is they have very little. I recently spoke with a doctor who told me about the shortages of diagnostic tools. There are no ultrasound machines and very few glucometers in our entire district containing many healthcare clinics. I won't even mention Xray or MRI machines.

I have decided that I would also mention the mourning period and funeral. I want to talk about it because it is so different from ours, and because I was asked to explain our own system numerous times. I think there is definitely something to be learned from them in this area. Immediately upon learning of his death I was summoned to his house. Upon arrival I found many people sitting around in chairs and on the ground. They seemed to be just doing their own thing, some talking, some playing cards, and some just sitting there. I didn't really know what to do so I just sat there with everyone else. At some point during the day his wife and children arrived and were ushered into the house. We just stayed there, community members coming and going until you needed to leave, then you just left. The next day we were back again. Just sitting around, this day included the students who also sat in their own groups and talked. Later in the day the body arrived and we had a more formal funeral like we would recognize. The third day we were off to his home city by bus for the actual burial.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the reason we sat around was to show support for the family. The whole community came and went. There was food and conversation and intense discussions about his family and the school and what was going to happen next. It's not a cheerful picture. His wife will receive some money, but not enough to sustain them for long. For that reason the hat was passed around several times for donations, and people gave even though they don't have much themselves. His passing was a community loss, and the community mourned together.

So this blog post is a Memorial to Daudi Pastory. He was a good man, honest, hard working, and a good family man. It was a pleasure to have worked with him for this short period of time, I just wish it could have been longer.

Please take a minute to say a prayer for him. He was very curious and used to ask many questions about America. I know he would be proud to know that there were many people on the other side of the world thinking and praying for him. Maybe that will make you all a member of our little community.

Photos:
Daudi and I graduating in August.
The body arrives, the students line the road leading to the school and his home.
The funeral service included many different religious, political, and educational leaders.
A beautiful sunrise out my front door. No matter how bad it gets, it still rises everyday.

8/25/2018 Hello again from Tanzania. It has been quite a while since my last blog so I have a lot to tell you about. First off, we are right in the middle of the dry season. I thought it was dry when I first arrived, imagine my surprise when I found out it was actually the rainy season. The struggle for water is an everyday occurrence here. The river is nearly dry, there are very few wells, and there are no other sources of water. They do find water by digging into the riverbeds. When the dry season began they had to dig only a few inches, now the holes are so deep you can barely see the person. My host and I buy water from a man with a wheel barrow who delivers weekly. As you can guess it is quite soupy and requires boiling and filtering. The local people do not have that luxury and as I learned from my survey, diarrhea is a fact of life in nearly every household.
At the end of my last blog I think I mentioned a project. The Peace Corps places us in our villages with the expectation that we will work with the community to identify needs that we can work together on with the possibility of getting grants for monetary support. Obviously the needs are significant in many areas, but the two areas I have chosen to begin focusing on are nutrition and health. My survey showed me that most families do not have enough food throughout the year leading to poor health, and they are dealing with a wide variety of injuries and lots of diseases with little medical support.
So here's the plan: my counterpart and I will begin going to each sub village teaching about diseases, injuries, and sanitation. Each sub village (there are six) will select two volunteers who we will train as something like first responders. Their job will be to communicate with their respective villagers in order to identify sicknesses and injuries which they will then be communicated to the local doctor through a network that we will develop. These volunteers will also help educate and support the people who are most in need, such as those with mental disabilities. I hope to set up a daycare of some type to help provide some of these poor souls a place to go at least once in a while.
The next project is Chickens and Bees believe it or not. My second counterpart is a teacher at the local secondary school. We have permission to build a chicken coop and bee apiary on school property. The students will help build and maintain both projects (would never happen in America). Since this grant has a gender orientation most of the work will be completed by girls. Here's the plan: the girls will learn organizational and business skills at the same time they are learning about chickens and bees. Some of the profits will go into providing scholarships for girls and helping the school get things like water and electricity. Additionally, there is a community component where we will get the women from the villages to help build and maintain the project. In return they will get reduced prices for chickens, eggs, and honey, as well as support for the construction of their own chicken coops. Not unlike a co-op at home. This one will be overseen by a committee that we are just now creating.
Sooo plenty to do. In addition to this I am teaching a few classes at the primary and secondary levels, and still taking my Swahili lessons every week. There are a few other things that are on hold for now until I can get these projects rolling.
I hope everyone back home is enjoying the last of the summer. Fall is coming, and I know I'm going to miss it a lot. Hey, maybe it's time for Halloween in Tanzania!I
Tutaonana baadaye,
Brian or Mwana Kanywa (my village name)

Photos: How dry can it get? We have another month in the dry season
We traveled to Morogoro by bus for 14 hours for training in grant writing and chickens and bees.
In the graduation photo on the left is Clement, the trainer and Daudi, my counterpart. Hopefully you can still recognize me, although I think I might have changed a little in the last six months.

Couple of photos taken on my way to church this morning. They have dug deep into the riverbed. Don't know how deep it will get before the dry season is over.

July 22, 2018. Hello again from Tanzania. After a short absence I am back in full gear with the blog. I have been very busy since the last post, but I'll save that for later. First, Let me show you dinner. Beef stew! In the photos I show you all the fixins, tomato, mchicha, onions, bullion cube and the beef. They all go together in my little jicho (stove) for more than an hour.  The beef is straight from the butcher in what they call a mix. That means it has bones, bone fragments, tendons and everything else you can imagine in it. It all needs to be cut apart, marinated for a couple of hours, and then cooked for a couple of hours. That's because the meat is so tough it's like chewing on leather. I have to use my jicho for this because my gas stove would use up the gas too fast cooking for two hours. Today I washed my laundry as well. I'm getting pretty good at that too, it's really about the rubbing together of the cloth between your hands that gets the dirt out. The Tanzanians are very good at it, I'm getting better I think.

I finally completed my survey and paper. It was a real challenge. Getting people organized and walking from house to house with an interpreter and government official  was a real eye opener. We visited families that have never seen a medical person, let alone a white person. The condition of some of the people are difficult to imagine. Here are just a few of the things I found: untreated diabetes causing massive wounds on extremities, a broken arm that has been broken for a year, mentally disabled children living in terrible conditions, and HIV, TB, malaria, and diarrhea a common occurrance. I will provide some of the photos, but I will not show some of the worst.

HIV/AIDS.....24 of the 46 households we visited had someone currently or in the past suffering from it. I say currently or past because many of the family members have already died from it. Some survey examples: A house with parents but no children, do we count the three children who died from AIDS in our survey or not? A family of many children which includes children from her sisters household, but her sister died from AIDS. Do they count as family members or not? Should I count her sister? How about a household where the mother and father are HIV positive, but the children have never been tested and they don't look very well. Do they count as HIV positive or not? Now maybe you can see the dilemma, and get a feel for the amount of work to be done.

Did I mention that my brand new laptop died? The hard drive went. I am working from a borrowed laptop, that was a real challenge too.

PS I have a hyena story. Probably everyone has one, but I'll share mine too. When the dry season began the hyenas started coming around more frequently. I can lay in my bed and listen to them moving around and calling at night. At first I didn't recognize what they were doing, but now I have listened to them enough to understand. They make a grunting type noise that stirs up all of the dogs in the area. The dogs here just roam free without very much support (different story for a different time). The dogs bark and come up to the savannah where the hyenas are, and my house is. Then the hyenas eat them. I have heard that a few times too. The thing is, last night the hyenas were past my house toward the village more than in the past. There are no more dogs around me.
How's that for a story?

Reality does reach out and slap you in the face here.
Until next time!
Brian