Glasses: Half-Full.

Mwanza, Tanzania - All within five minutes today, we witnessed a large contrast of activities within the community where the interns’ apartment is located. Returning from the market, we saw a crowd forming as people hurried from all corners to see what the commotion was about. People were smiling, laughing and pointing toward a large throng of people amassed in front of a couple of stores, and someone else was lying on the ground. Suddenly, two police officers appeared from the centre of the mass, one firing shots into the sky, as they whisked an uncooperative suspect away. Yet five minutes later, when we came back outside, a crowd had formed for a different reason: some of the performers we had seen in the HIV/AIDS morality plays last week were doing an African dance, backed by musical instruments reminiscent of a southern jug band. Quite the activity – and a little surreal.

The heat hung heavily and we really felt its effects as we walked throughout the city, and over to the community kitchen, where Meaghan and Alison also teach the ‘yogurt mamas’ English three times a week. Today’s lesson was about the possessive forms of subjects and the interns worked with the mamas in both Swahili and English to help them understand proper sentence structure. The mamas were also really excited to receive reading glasses, which Meaghan’s mother had sent to the community. It was cute to see them trying on different frame styles, but the glasses should really benefit the mamas in their studies and day-to-day work.

All the while, a number of the community’s younger children began appearing on the kitchen’s steps and looked in at us with curiosity. Playing peek-a-boo and making some funny faces sent them into peels of laughter and led to their pretending to hide on the steps or to their scurrying away, only to return all over again.

Mabatini.

Mwanza, Tanzania - "Hapana, Asante"
(“No, thank you”) I said to the ‘yogurt mamas’ this morning after they expressed many thanks for our visit and for our support. “We teach you about probiotic yogurt, you teach us about life,” Gregor added. With the experiences we have had over the past week, such a statement resonated with a tremendous amount of poignancy. The energy the ‘yogurt mamas’ bring to the Western Heads East initiative and to their community is tremendous. I am privileged to have had the opportunity to witness this first-hand. We were meeting with the mamas for the last time as a full complement of team members on this trip; Gregor, Jennifer and Maryanne have just left for the airport. I, however, look forward to working with them again over the coming weeks before I, too, return home to Canada.

From a personal standpoint, I have been amazed to see the sheer number of children running about and looking shyly, excitedly or sometimes with trepidation, at these “muzungus” coming into their community in a Range Rover. The Mabatini village is not exactly a tourist destination. They are quick with smiles when you engage them, and are fascinated by seeing pictures of themselves on the back of a digital camera. Today, I nearly incited a mini riot of children who rapidly surrounded me after I took a photo of one of the boys and showed it to him. Soon, children – seemingly extricating themselves from crevices in the walls – clamoured around for their opportunity to be photographed and to be around the visitors. It was as though it took one to break the ice, to show we were friendly. The excitement is infectious. Of course, my handing out superballs to a few of the children only whipped the crowd into more of a frenzy, but you can’t possibly begin to bring enough for everyone. Children are, literally, everywhere.

This, of course, is one of the big reasons this project is so important. While I can presume it’s the same throughout the majority of Africa, I have seen first-hand, and know to be true, that malnutrition, disease and lack of access to potable water are ravaging populations in Kenya and Tanzania. It has been astounding to see so few senior citizens throughout our travels. I get a sinking feeling in my stomach when I realize just why that is: the average life expectancy is just 45. It’s universal whether you’re in Canada, the United States, Kenya or Tanzania: the children are the future. With this in common, we could certainly learn from each other to help create a better future around the globe. Despite their hardship, and often limited opportunity, the children here are, for the most part, extraordinarily happy. Many are sick, but they do not look defeated. Nearly all their clothes are in tatters, but “sawa” (“it’s alright”); it’s hot here.

It’s something I would suggest we think about a little more often as we stress about deadlines, bills and what shade of taupe to paint our walls. We certainly have poverty, disease and a different kind of malnutrition in North America, but here, it seeps into everything the dust can reach. Which is to say, everywhere.

Day Four: Mwanza.

Mwanza, Tanzania - Without question, the days painted with the experience of visiting various towns and commun- ities have thus far proved to be the most rewarding – both personally and professionally. Being among the people has provided unparalleled opportunities for seeing how other people live, and also for how much we have to be thankful. The sights. The smells. The sounds. The feelings. Our senses are alive and being pulled in so many directions.

Today, we visited the birthplace of the Western Heads East project in Africa – the Mabatini community kitchen. Before we had the chance to do so, however, we had a successful meeting with Regional Administrative Secretary Alhaji Yhya Mbila, who cleared space in his morning schedule to meet with us at the prompting of Amran Batenga, Chairman of the regional Chamber of Commerce, with whom we met last night.

Our objective during the meeting was to increase awareness of, and generate increased support from government for, the Western Heads East project. “We all out support it; we’re talking about AIDS, which is a big threat,” Mbila said. “Mwanza is the hub,” he began, telling us that the lake region is home to 30 per cent of the country’s population. “Historically, we have competition economically with Kenya and Uganda, but invariably, we are the best.” While he previously had little knowledge of the project, he was sufficiently impressed that he promised to visit the community kitchen over the next month to experience it first hand.

Which is what we did next. Greeted by the mamas, who were all wearing green Western Heads East T-shirts (which read, on the back, “How can a cow fight HIV? Western Heads East”) along with their traditional kitenge, we were given portions of the probiotic yogurt that has helped them build their reputation in the community. Though we eventually added a little bit of sugar, it tasted quite good.

The mamas’ kitchen is a small room with turquoise walls and a mural depicting the community engaged in the yogurt making process on one wall. Awash with green plastic containers, a small floortop stove, a refrigerator, other tools and a table for distribution, the kitchen will need to be expanded to increase opportunities for sustainability. The village of Mabatini is dry and set into the hills with dirt roads and people everywhere. Most of the buildings are stone and the wind whips down the laneways, carrying with it dust and the excited trills of children. I look forward to revisiting the community over the next week or so and seeing more of it. It was an amazing experience.

Following our time in the kitchen, we are treated to a cultural experience as the local Tunda Sana theatre troupe ushered us in as honoured guests to watch a series of performances aimed at teaching people about HIV/AIDS through drama. While I likened it in my head to opera – which you don’t necessarily need to understand the lyrics to enjoy – we had an interpreter and were truly blown away by the performance, and the experience. Following the main morality plays, the audience was engaged to ask questions of the actors, who remained in character while providing their responses. It struck me how this encouraged important discussion among the group, and was impressed by the actors’ ability to reply in metaphor. On one such occasion, for example, an actor portraying a philandering girlfriend was asked, “Why have more than one boyfriend,” to which she replied, “You can’t live on the same diet of rice.” This also happened to be the one time an actor had no answer to the follow-up question: “If you need change in your diet, why not women?” I also thought that was a pretty enlightened question for this area. The session wrapped up with a traditional African dance, which was also a tremendous, unexpected experience.

Looking out at a rainbow arcing over Lake Victoria, I feel almost like I have found the pot of gold of experience; this has also been another amazing day.