ELECTRICITY IS BACK!!!!! After 88 days, or 12 weeks and 4 days (nearly an entire college semester), the electricity has returned. How nice of it. It’s pretty incredible there wasn’t one public protest or rally from the Zanzibaris. Apparently, the president didn’t want to declare it an “emergency” because that would have made him look weak (and elections are coming up in the fall), yet, many foreign governments and NGOs have money that could have been used to speed the repair process along had the e-word been invoked. Because the big man isn’t on the best of terms with his fellow politicians on the TZ mainland, no one came rushing to his aid. So, there is where the 88 days comes from. Word is the cable running from the mainland to Zbar will be fixed in 2012. We’ll see if that comes to pass. We still have some power cuts, and each time I mentally prepare myself for another 12+ weeks w/o electricity. Luckily, the cuts have been short-lasted.
The rainy season is starting and man does it p.o.u.r. here. One of our research assistants thought the expression “it’s raining cats and dogs” was quite hilarious. I suppose so, and for her it must have been frightening as cats are mostly of the incredibly mangy variety here, and dogs are only used as guard dogs… they are not loved pets; it goes with their religious beliefs that dogs are dirty animals. It's not the same kittens and puppy dogs I imagined when I was young and heard that phrase.
Anyway, Nora will be arriving here next Sunday! I’m hoping she’ll get to see some sunshine and the days with 14hrs of rain won’t coincide with her vacation. If they do, though, I suppose we’ll have a lovely time puddle hopping together like we did when we were in elementary school.
I’ve been quite busy with our research project lately. We have completed twelve focus group discussions in Unguja (the island where I live) and Pemba (the smaller and less-developed island to the north). We did eight groups in Pemba (which had electricity) before the electricity came back on in Unguja. Those 12 weeks were likely the first time in the past 40 years when Pemba has been better off than Unguja. It felt luxurious to have the breeze of a ceiling fan, and to be able to use a computer without the noise of a generator. Such a deal! However, the water tank dried up two days before we left so that put a cramp in things. Pemba on the whole has a slower pace of life. There is no evidence of the typical tourist shops that have taken hold in Stone Town, very few wazungu, and (at least where I was) less people concentrated in one area.You can’t buy butter, yogurt, or ground beef. Pringles, Coca-Cola, and a bunch of packaged foods imported from Oman and the UAE are available. Pemba is much more agriculturally-based than Unguja. It used to be the bread basket of Mombasa, Kenya. It has many more hills and overall variety to its landscape, where Unguja is mostly flat. At night, there are many people lining the one main street selling food by kerosene lamps-- breads, chapattis, grilled octopus & squid, maandazi (like a donut, but with a slight coconut flavor), tea and coffee. While I don’t usually wear a head covering or scarf here in Unguja, it felt uncomfortable to be without in Pemba. All the shops there close for each of the 5 calls to prayer each day, something that doesn’t happen here in Stone Town, except occasionally on Fridays. You can see a picture of the street during one such call to prayer- it is empty except for a few children playing.
We did four groups (older women & men, younger women & men) in each of the two sites, one near the large town of Chakechake, and one in the northern part of the island. I felt exhausted at the end of the day, after hearing almost exclusively Swahili for the entire time. It’s great practice, but it’s a lot of mental energy! In each location, we were received warmly and the participants had good contributions to the discussions. It was nice to see how we as a research team are improving our discussion facilitation skills and to actually put our training and preparation into action.
We have three more groups planned for this coming week, which will be conducted near Stone Town. I’m curious to see if the responses will differ noticeably given the urban environment. I’ll keep you posted. We’ll also start our in-depth interviews with health care providers, key informants, and women who have had a pregnancy interruption at the end of this month and in April. It will be nice to have a one-on-one conversation them more pointed questions that we don’t ask in our focus groups.
I’ve been working on job applications for next year and have a few phone interviews coming up in the next weeks. At the moment, I could end up in Boston, Newark, Rwanda, France, the Caribbean, or stay here. When I narrow it down, I’ll let you know!
I was recently doing a cross-word puzzle that my Mom had sent me (thanks!) and was becoming more certain that the editor had made a mistake, because I knew, with absolute certainty, two clues that built off each other. I finally realized that I had spelled “practice” the British way (practise). Thank you to the long-lasting influences of colonialism. I feel slightly bad for the kiddos in school here because all those words like color, favorite, center, or program, they’re all considered “correct” if they spell them the British way. I think that’s rubbish, hogwash, or bloody mad… but maybe that’s just me. Right then.
My favorite week where we didn’t have electricity was Feb 11-16th. Why? Because it was the Sauti za Busara music festival in Stone Town! Sauti za Busara means “sounds of wisdom” in Swahili. It was such a nice change from the typical routine here, allowing me to forget that we didn’t have electricity. There was great variety in the musical acts, with some dancers as well. Many artists were from Africa, but there was a Tanzanian-Japanese group and a performer from Norway as well. My favorite hands down was Ba Cissoko, a group from Guinea that features the kora. I seriously didn’t know which instrument was producing the rich sounds I heard. They’re on iTunes (but not all of their albums)—check them out for sure. They had an incredible amount of energy and stage presence, and had everyone standing up dancing. I’m determined to see them live again at some point. There was also a great dance troup from Uganda that made me want to go back there and spend more than the week I spent there in November (see picture of the woman with all the jars on her head- she danced like they weren’t there at all, and had even more than what is in the picture on top of her head by the end of the dance!). The entire festival had an incredibly friendly atmosphere and was just so pleasant. I’m sorry that’s a vague description, but it was simply delightful.
I’ve included some other pictures in this post. I must give credit to Allison, an MPH student here working with us, for the photos.
This is our research team (minus a few members) during a meeting in our office.
This one is of the place where I usually buy my lunch (sesame seed bread) for 250 shillings, or about 20 cents. Note the green and yellow CCM decorations for the political party.
This is an aerial view of Stone Town taken from our plane trip back from Pemba. You can see some of the boats in the port, and allllll those corrugated metal roofs.
This is a view of the fields in Chakechake, Pemba.
