In the Globe and Mail

Ok...I realized I haven't posted in a while, especially to explain how the final presentation went (amazing!  They were so thankful and appreciative of what we provided them with) - but it will come as soon as I can find some good pictures!

In the meantime, there was an article posted in the Globe and Mail about the work we did over there, so please check it out!

Thank you to Alexander G for sending it to me!

 

My Return to Zanzibar

Well, as most of you know Zanzibar has always been one of my most favourite places in the world.  And of course, it remains true - it got even better the second time around!

We started our journey right after finishing up with the community service work.  I was a little nervous about the plane - more than usual actually (probably the mefloquine making me paranoid).  It was a 10 or 12 seater single engine plane - I was literally right behind the pilot which was pretty cool.

The plane we took to Zanzibar from Tanga - a little scary

Sitting right behind the pilot - we were snapping pictures like crazy and he was such a good sport about it

The plane held no more than 12 passengers - one of them actually had to sit in the co-pilot seat!

View of the landing strip in Zanzibar

Thank goodness it was only 1/2 hour flight!  We arrived in Zanzibar and immediately took a taxi into Stone Town, where we spent the entire weekend.

Stone Town

We went to all the main sites - checked out the Forodhani Park with hundreds of vendors selling fesh seafood, miskhaki and kuku choma.

Forodhani Park in the evening - it was so happening. Definitely the place to be after sunset

We then went to Prisoner's Island to see some massive turtles! Saw the building where prisoners would have been held (if the prison was complete - it actually didn't end up being used)

This Turtoise was 155 years old!

The Prisoners Building on Prisoner's Island

Right around the prisoners' building, we saw this beautiful peacock that spread it's wings for a lady friend that was close by.  It was beautiful! The first time I have seen one with the wings spread like that!  The picture definitely doesn't do it justice!

A male Peacock trying to get attention of a lady friend

Rebel group #2 (newest member Kalpana - middle left)

We ended our evening watching the sunset on a little private island not far from the Serena Hotel.  Apparently this is the Island where the Aga Khan (leader of the Muslim-Shia-Ismaili faith and major benefactor in East Africa) goes to pray when he visits.  I can understand why - we literally felt like we were alone on the edge of the earth!  It was just amazing...

Sunset on the white sand Island

Sunset coming back into Stone Town

I'm not sure when I'll be back to this part of the world, so am so glad that I was able to experience Zanzibar again!

Only one week left!

An Amazing Day at the local Orphanage / Women's Shelter in Tanga

This post is a little delayed because of how crazy things have been since we all fell sick, so I'm going to try to catch up!

Last Friday our team went to do community service at a local orphanage and women's shelter... we all knew, even before arriving, that the day would be one of the best we had in Tanzania. And it sure was...

Children lined up in perfect rows to greet us

We arrived at the Shelter to be greeted by so many children of different age groups. They all lined up from shortest to tallest in multiple rows to greet us, and then welcomed us with a prayer and the Tanzanian national anthem! They were just SO adorable and so well behaved - we were all shocked at the level of respect that they showed all of us right from the very start.

Singing songs to welcome us

 

Afterwards, our IBM team was split into groups of 2 to help around the shelter in different areas. There was Phys-ed, Gardening, Laundry, Library and Cooking.  Anil and I took on the cooking area and instantly took to the chef role (costume and all!).  We learned how to make ugali (a local staple food made of water and flour), a coconut bean curry (vegetarian), spicy beef curry (nyama mchoosi), local fish (samaki), and a coleslaw type salad.  We had so much fun wearing our traditional Tanzania Kanga (which is a wrap that women wear over top of their pants...although that of course didn't stop Anil, who also wanted to feel part of the group so he put on the Kanga as well despite the chuckles coming from the local group!).

Anil was insistent that he wear a Kanga (traditional woman's skirt)

I was shredding carrots and Anil was cutting potatoes - I tried to switch but he wasn't having it!

Fying the potatoes to make fries - the oil was so hot and so strong it was difficult to breathe at times!



With Mama cooking the Beef Curry in our Chef wear!



Anil taste testing to food to make sure it was ok for the rest of the group

After finishing the cooking, we served the children and then put out the food for everyone else to eat.  Although I'm sure the team was probably skeptical of having Anil and I cook their meals (especially after having been so sick - this was the first real meal that everyone ate after the mishap with the water), they all were so complementary of the food!  It was a all a big hit and we felt like heroes ;)



Serving our team - they all loved the food!



We spent some time talking to Mama - who was the Chair of the Shelter and Orphanage. She is such an amazing woman with so much love to give.  Regardless of race, religion, abilities or sexual orientation, she welcomed everyone who needed love, support and a place to call home.  So many of the children had troubled backgrounds, suffered from HIV (some who had it transmitted through the mother), or came from a place where they were being persecuted for things that were completely out of their control (e.g. sexual orientation, Albino (Mama told us that Albino's are targeted for their organs, because for whatever ludicrous reason, there are some people who think that the organs of Albinos will bring them luck and richness).  

Of course, being there, you would never know that there were any troubles at all because all we heard was laughter and excitement.  It was amazing to see how comfortable and how accepting they all were of eachother....something that Mama engrained in everyone and one of the core values instilled in the entire organization. Let me just say that if there were more people like Mama spreading such love in the world, we would be in such a better place.

Needless to say, it was such an amazing experience to spend the day there....we didn't want to leave and we hope to go back before we head back to our home countries!

Distributing some gifts that we all brought from our home countries - the red pencil you see is what I brought from Canada

Cause of Team Illness

Well, I would like to add an update to the previous post.  It turns out that it is unlikely that it was something in the buffet that caused the illness, but it was.....

BOTTLED WATER!!!!  Yes, that's right bottled water that we receive from the hotel.

Each day, we are given 2 SEALED bottles of water.  I don't think any of us really inspected the water extremely closely and trusted that the water we were being given was clean (especially because the label said it was clean spring water and it was freshly sealed).

Needless to say, one of the members on our team happened to inspect the water bottle a little more closely today, as we all sat outside eating crackers and dry toast, and noticed something funny.....

From a first glance, nothing looks wrong.... right?

But then you look closer and you see little brownish-yellow floaty things ALL in the water! What that is - I don't even want to know.  My stomach is still a little quesy so I can't go into too much detail without having to quicly rid myself of the crackers and toast.

Anyway, mystery solved and immediately actioned.  The resort felt very badly and will be dealing directly with the vendor, and of course, from now on, we are getting plastic seal-covered water bottles!

Thought you might all be interested :)

Week 2 - Small Struggles...

Well, we are now into our 2^nd week here in Tanzania and on the ICT project for VETA. 

From a project perspective, we have commenced all of the analysis based on the information we gathered from interviews that took place with major stakeholders from the previous weeks, and are now working towards completing our mid-term report.  What we’ve realized so far is that while a very basic communication tool (e.g. posting course material online) could drastically increase the reach to students across Tanzania, and improve learning, this is quite a difficult concept to implement because of the lack of internet connectivity across the major regions.  And, in those regions where connectivity is somewhat reliable, it is just so unaffordable for many of the centres and for the students. So that said, we are working on trying to find alternative solutions so that we can still work towards our end goal of fulfilling the high demand for education (currently only 15-20% of the demand for education is able to be fulfilled given classroom capacity issues (hence the need for ICT) and therefore working towards increasing the skilled labour force within Tanzania.   

From a personal perspective, well, things haven’t been the easiest!  Our entire group (with the exception of 1 person) fell ill over the past few days (major stomach illnesses).  I think it was something we ate in the buffet.  I was one of the first people to go down and then one by one we started to drop like flies!  Most of us have medication that we brought from our home countries, so we rationing them with other team members who do not have the medication.  I’m going on about 49 hours with the illness, but am feeling much better thanks to the electrolytes package that my group member gave me to keep hydrated and the antibiotics that I brought from home.  One more day and hopefully everything will be back to normal for everyone.  

Before the group sickness, a few of us ventured out to a local beach to enjoy the sun and sand.   

The "rebel group"

View from the Yacht Club

Beautiful white sand

Jelly Fish that washed up on shore

There we met a local family that was celebrating a birthday party for a 9 year old. They were so giving and so hospitable.  They invited us to the birthday party and taught us how to dance Tanzanian style.  They also kept giving us food and offering us everything they had – it was really touching at how giving they were.  The kids were really cute, there was this one little boy named Mariamo that was afraid of the water so a few of our group members took him into the Ocean one step at a time, and by the end he was skipping and jumping – we couldn’t keep up!  That was by far my most favourite day in Tanzania so far.

Trying to get the little girl to dance with me

Our group member learning to slow dance Tanzanian style - he thought this woman would be his bride - turned out she had a husband

All of the food at the birthday party

The Birthday Party Invitees



Regine and Soneeya teaching Mariamo that the water isn't as scary as he thinks - he was fearless at the end of this walk!



One of my most favourite things in East Africa - the sunset

Lots more to come in the next few weeks I’m sure!



Week 1 in Tanzania

It's now almost been a week that I've been here in Tanzania so thought it's about time to post some pictures and give a brief update on what's going on! 

Of course from my last blog you can probably imagine how hard it was for me to leave Istanbul!  And on top of it all, I was scheduled on the flight that arrived at 3am in Dar es Salaam, so I was a little paranoid just given the timing.

So after a 5 hour flight, I arrived in Dar es Salaam as scheduled: 3am.   The flight was not very busy - it was probably half full.  When I got to immigration, the plan was that a business visa would be waiting for me, so of course I asked immigration for this when I landed, but alas it was not there.

This was a big problem for me because:
1.  I only had $100 USD, but the Visa at $200 USD
2.  The Immigration desk only took cash
3.  The ATM was outside of the airport
4.  I was not allowed to leave the airport without a stamped passport
5.  My passport was confiscated by the officer

So after calling the IBM program manager back and forth and making friends with the officier in charge, I was finally allowed to leave the airport (by special escort) to get the cash needed for the Visa.  After paying, I got my passport back (thank goodness!) and then left the airport.

Needless to say after arriving at the Hotel, I met up with the remaining group members, who all arrived at the day before, so I had some catching up to do!  The other members were great and I was SO thankful that I got such a great team!



Team 9 - Tanzania


The hotel itself was ok - I unfortunately didn't have hot water, so I did get a little sick (getting better now!).

A day later we met our Host from Veta at a Dinner.  The gentleman we are working with (Mr. Kisima) is fantastic and SO grateful to have us there helping him. He desperately sees the importance of implementing ICT within the Country and is looking for support to communicate the message.  So we definitely have a big job ahead of us - but we're excited to be able to contribute to such an important milestone for the country.

Dinner at with our Host the first night

The VETA headquarters

Inside one of their most advanced centres



A welding class




Asking the teachers some questions

 

Last weekend we went to a place called Bagamoyo (this means leaving your heart / soul somewhere and having your physical being somewhere else) - the town was called Bagamoyo because this is where people were captured as slaves and transported to Zanzibar (and the Americas).  It was quite an experience to be there and learn the history of that town and to think about how cruel humans could be to one another....



The town of Bagamoyo

Yesterday we took a 9 hour bus ride (for a 250 km trip) to Tanga.  We arrived at the resort at 9pm and were all stunned by the cleanliness, friendliness and overall quality of the hotel!  (And I was thankful for the hot water!).  We will be working from this resort for the majority of our time here (with some trips to the different campuses) so hopefully we'll also be able to get in a little R&R!


The Bus we took to Tanga - they had to load the luggage through the window



We had a bollywood singer on the bus - Soneeya - she was amazing!



A small village we passed on our trip to Tanga



We arrived at the Tanga Beach Resort! (9 hours later)

I'll end with some other pictures that I have taken over the past week!  We start the work tomorrow so will given another update on that next week, so stay tuned!



The sub-team working at Veta (L-R: Me, Anjan (India), Regine (US), Matyas (Hungary) 



Eating some local chakula (food)



At the Registrars office in Tanga (I closed the door on Anjan so that he would know what it would feel like to be in jail (you know...scare him straight!) ;)







Istanbul - ..the world's capital

After spending a few days in Istanbul, I can say with certainty that this is one of the best, if not the best, places that I have ever visited!  There is such a mix of everything - culture, people, food.... it's the perfect blend between Middle-Eastearn and European cultures.

On one of our tours we heard a quote from Napolean Bonaparte that summarizes Istanbul perfectly.  He said "If the world were a single state, istanbul would have been its capital"

We started our journey in Istanbul by walking around the old city visiting a number of sites, such as :

• Bascillica Cistern (an old roman underground temple)



• Topkapi Palace (from where the Sultans ruled the Ottoman empire)

• Blue Mosque (yes, it's as amazing as everyone says!)





• Suleymaniye Mosque

• Grand Bazaar (my favourite place!)



• Spice Bazaar

After spending a few days in the old city, we decided to venture out into the new part of Istanbul (all walking!). 

 

We the took the Galata Bridge, where we enjoyed a drink facing the horn and some fish sandwiches from a floating boat restaurant, over to the new city where we walked Istiklal - the main walking street full of shops, restaurants, cafes, performers, etc... it was amazing!

After spending some time on Istiklal, we had to visit the famous T
aksim Square!  So we made our way up there for some pictures and to try some of the delicious  garlic and tomato hamburgers!

Yesterday we took a Ferry tour down the Bosphorus to a Fishing village, where we spent a few hours checking out the local village.  We had an audio guide on our way there, so we learned a lot about the city and it's history!

We end every night by stopping in our favourite Turkish Dessert Place - Hafiz Mustafa, eating some Baklava and drinking some Turkish Tea, while we people watch!

Istanbul has been incredible - although I don't think we would have seen as much had it not been Ali's tips and notes (thanks Ali!).  It's going to be really hard to eave tomorrow, although I am, of course, excited for the next leg of the CSC journey in Tanzania!