PRA and Community Service

I finished my first paper assignment here in Tanzania! For some reason, the relief of finishing has been substantial, despite the fact that it wasn’t that bad. We had to research anything we’d observed on our first trip to Lake Manyara National Park that we were interested in and then write a research paper on how our observations fit into the current literature. I wrote about warthog grouping size, which is actually really fascinating. Sometimes females group up when offspring are present and sometimes they don’t, and no one has really found solid evidence for why. Anyways, it feels good to have the first big assignment done. Now I have another research paper to write on activity patterns in Olive Baboons due on Thursday.

The past week has been a whirlwind of classes! We’ve done birding and grass identification in Ecology. The grass identification was particularly fun. We went back to the grassland right outside of Lake Manyara National Park, where many Maasai graze their herds. Some of them walked with us again, though this time they couldn’t really help us identify much since we were using scientific names. I really love being with the Maasai. I think their language is beautiful, and I learned a couple of words from the guy who walked with us. There’s engeteng (cow), engine and engere (one’s sheep and one is goat), engweli (Thompson Gazelle), enkati (buffalo), and engweleti (shell). The way the words are said is hard to describe, but it is so beautiful. They don’t speak any English or much Swahili, so find ways to communicate is always fun.

We’ve also experienced the first of the rainy season. It’s poured really, really hard for a few hours a couple of days this week. We’ve also had a few intense thunderstorms during the night. The power’s been off and on, which wasn’t helpful when we had to be looking for online articles for our paper. There’s a generator for when the power goes out, but it usually takes a while for it to kick in.

In my last entry, I said I was going to write about the PRA practice project we did in Policy. There's this technique for involving local communities in conserving their resources called the PRA (participatory rural assessment) where you do interviews with local people to learn about the land and its resources, the problems, the history, and the organizations within the community. The whole group was split up into groups of four and given a task from the PRA. I interviewed local people about what they thought the top five problems facing their community are, and then about the organizations working on these issues and if they are effective or if they work together or not. It was a learning experience. We visited all sorts of people with our super cool local guide/translator. The first woman was very poor. She was cooking in her cook house, which was essentially a hut you couldn't even stand up in with mud and stick walls, a thatched roof, and one window maybe six inches by six inches. She was cooking ugali (corn flour and water) over a wood fire. Halfway through the interview she had to run out to give her water barrels to her neighbor, who was driving his tractor the 5km to the closest well so she could get her water for the day. I think our guide said she was allowed to have 40 liters for the whole day. We also talked to local shop owners, people who were buying things in these stores, tourist shop owners, a doctor from the clinic, members of the local water board, and other women who were at home.

The top five problems were water, education (mostly paying school fees for uniforms and materials), health, food security, and unemployment. They have a local water board, but even the members of the board that we interviewed admitted the program wasn't working. There just isn't enough water in the area to fully support all of the people. Apparently the two local tourist lodges help fund a lot of projects, which was interesting.

I can't say I was surprised at these interviews, but seeing all of this up close and personally talking to these people was… I don't know, there aren't really words. All of the people in my group and I agreed that we feel guilty that we get essentially unlimited clean water, food, electricity, and shelter in camp, even though to us the living is a bit more rough than we're used to. And trying to find solutions to these problems… well, it feels like a huge chunk of the world is trying to figure that out. These people are living like people did in the 1800s in America! But I also feel like it will be easier to go from this way of living to a more sustainable but comfortable way of living. In America we'll have to get used to not wasting so much if we're ever going to be sustainable. There have been some really interesting and intense discussions in my policy class about implementing economic development and sustainable living in rural villages in Africa. I also had a conversation with Kioko, my wildlife ecology professor, about population growth and barriers to economic development and sustainability.

Today was our community service day. I went to the children’s home sponsored by the Rhotia Valley Tented Lodge. This home was a lot nicer than I expected, complete with a playing field, playground, and comfortable buildings, similar to the ones we have in camp. It seemed like these children might live more comfortably than many other children in the area. We were actually joking that we wanted to switch locations with them! They could have our camp if we could have their place. These children have their primary and secondary school paid for, but they do have to walk a long way to schools.

We brought a ton of children’s books and then we read to them. The girl I was with could read English really well, so she read to me. I think she was probably 10 or 11. Apparently, primary school here is taught in Swahili, but secondary school is taught in English, and that switch can be very rough. Children also have to pass tests to get to certain grades, and my understanding is that they only get one chance for each test. After we had read for about an hour, then we played games with the children. We guessed what animals the younger children were pretending to be, we sang and danced the hokey pokey, we played Jenga using the building blocks, we had competitions on who could do the silliest things while balancing a lid with blocks on it on your head, and, of course, once one of the students pulled out her phone, half of them crowded around her and took lots of pictures. Then, the owner of the lodge invited us students up to visit the lodge itself. If anyone is interested in visiting Tanzania, I highly suggest the Rhotia Valley Lodge. Its location is breathtaking among rolling hills and farmland, plus, the income generated supports the children’s home.

Right now, we have lots of free time. There was supposed to be a Swahili class, but that was cancelled. Tomorrow we have another non-program day. We’re going back to Karatu! Last week we went to Mto wa Mbu, but I’ve decided I like Karatu much better. It’s less touristy, and there are less people following you around, waving necklaces in your face, and trying to get you to buy them.

Well, I’m going to work on my Swahili worksheet now. The power’s out again while I’m writing this, so I don’t know how long I’ll have to wait until I can actually post this. 

It only ended up being an hour or so! Yay!