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Published: March 19th 2009
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Walking to Juvi
On the way to Juvi to do some painting!!
ps. Lets all thank Sadie\'s blog for letting me take these pictures.
pps. Sadie I stole these pictures from your blog. What the blog?!?! I'm actually back on this thing? Yes it’s true. I've returned so brace yourself.
First off, I have to say that Africa changes you. You notice so many things about yourself once you arrive back home. For example:
A. I'll be fine if beans and rice are absent from my plate for the next 6 months.
B. I miss toilets. Although squatting over a hole in the ground provides for good target practise.
C. I love Maytag washing machines and irons (any brand of iron will do). Washing your clothes in a bucket and having to iron your undies to get the jigger bugs out is fun ONLY ONCE.
D. I'm not going to win the MVP blogging award for 2009.
Let me explain 'D'. So, there is a part of Tanzanian culture called 'Tanzanian Flex Time'. It basically means that the things you expect to happen at a certain time don't happen until much later. For example, I planned on blogging and posting pictures faster than Entertainment Tonight would report a Paris Hilton story, but two weeks after arriving back in Canada I'm just getting to it!!! Instead of calling myself a slacker, I like
The brains behind the project!
Sadie and Jane (not pictured) where our two CCS volunteers at Juvi. They came up with the idea of painting the room and we all jumped on board to help them out! to say that I've... embraced TFT.
Moving on.
While volunteering in Tanzania I was fortunate enough to visit some other placements of fellow volunteers. It was an eye opening experience in so many ways. It's amazing how some people are treated in Tanzania.
I was lucky enough to visit the Juvenile Detention Centre (less formally known as Juvi). Juvi is a place where children that have committed a crime stay before they are sentenced in court. Generally, the kids either get released or are placed into jail. It all depends on what the judge rules. The crimes these kids commit are not necessarily crimes either. One child got in an argument with her grandmother and was sent to Juvi for disrespecting her elder (of course, this is the abbreviated version of the story). An 11 year old boy was play fighting with his friend, kicked him in the stomach, and his friend died (probably due to a pre-existing condition). Now this 11 year old boy is waiting to stand in a Tanzanian court before a judge that will decide if he is guilty for manslaughter. Amazing. Despite all of the horrible stories Juvi is actually a fun
Juvi
The kids helped us out! place. Or at least the volunteers try and make it fun. All of the kids are released from their rooms when the volunteers arrive to begin the days activities. The day I went we decided to paint a mural on the wall. All the kids helped us brighten up the walls....and maybe a little bit of the floor. Ok, maybe a lot bit of the floor. Good thing they weren't expecting a professional paint job. All in all, it was a great experience and I was happy to help out.
Another place I was able to visit was one of the local hospitals. The hospital has thousands of patients walking through its doors each day. Generally they have to walk past the giant storks that situate themselves next to the hospitals grounds. Yes, storks at the hospital. Fitting? You'd think so. But maybe you'd change your mind if you heard that the one and only operating room at this hospital was only steps away from these wild birds. The OR has windows to the outside world that are often left open. Absolutely not a sterile environment. The wards. The wards are FULL of people. There are often 2 or
Pose for the camera
Looks a little like an iPod commercial 3 people to ONE BED! And I'm talking about a twin bed. The burn unit was the hardest part for me to see. I walked in to see little kids with giant burns all over their bodies. And the dressings that were supposed to cover these burns only consisted of one or two pieces of gauze. Absolutely not enough to keep the burn from being exposed. And again, this unit had two or three kids per bed. Nurses also reuse gloves at this hospital due to a lack of supplies. I guess that explains the dressing of one piece of gauze also.
An orphanage I visited for infants and toddlers was leaps and bounds different from the orphanage I volunteered at. The orphanage I visited was able to gain access to government funding, something that Tuleeni (my placement) has yet to achieve. There was a playground with swings and a junglegym, they had cribs for all the kids, lots of clothes, bathrooms, food. It was like luxuary. Don't get me wrong, it was luxuary only in comparison to Tuleeni Orphanage. It wasn't the nicest building in Tanzania by any means, but it was nice enough. The worst part was
seeing two physically/mentally challenege boys (about 10 years old) that were left in their cribs all day long. I walked over to talk with them and was overwhelmed by the smell of urine coming from their soaked matresses. The ladies that work there supposidly never take them out of the cribs because they don't really know how to handle a disability. Thankfully one of our CCS volunteers is physical therapist and was able to take these boys out of their cribs and excercise with them on a daily basis. She was also able to teach some techniques to the ladies that run the orphanage so that they can take these boys out everday!
So why do I point out all of these seemingly negative aspects of Tanzanian life? I don't tell you these stories to make you think that the country is in horrible condition. Yes, in some places things are not great, but it’s important for our side of the world to be less ignorant to the things that are happening on their side of the world. I think it’s important to know.
There are so many amazing people in Tanzania, and they have so many cultural
Operating Room
Note the open windows in the background. differences that need to be appreciated. I came back to Canada saying that, yes they lack a lot of money/supplies over there, but they have so much that we don't have in other areas. Their culture is so rich and their lives can be so simple. They don't have to focus on sending emails, buying the newest car, or having the nicest clothes. They focus on people. Neighbours. Friends. Strangers. They are interested in who you are, and they are over the moon excited to share their culture with you. I never found myself wishing that they had what we North Americans have. Yes, I wished that the nurses had a lifetime supply of gloves and gauze, and that aspects of the criminal system was altered, and that no child was left in a crib all day, but I never want our culture to be imposed on them because then they will lose the incredible part of Tanzania that I grew to love.
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