arrival on the east african coast

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24 hours in Tanzania already and I’ve been hard at work. After a short flight to Minneapolis and then a long flight to Amsterdam and a long flight to Dar es Salaam (stopping in Kilimanjaro), I made it in 28 hours of total travel time. The Moroccan soccer team was on my flight, and wow did they have a lot of luggage! I was picked up at the airport in a Johns Hopkins 4-Runner driven by a man named Ayub.

Dar es Salaam, at least what I have seen so far on the outskirts of the downtown area, reminds me of a mix of Delhi and Cape Town, if you can imagine such a thing. The main roads are nicely paved, but the side roads require an off-road vehicle. The architecture reminds me a lot of Kathmandu, with touches of African and Muslim flare. There is a lot of dust on the roads, but not nearly as bad as India or Nepal. It is hot and humid, except for near the water where I am staying, luckily. Lots of people walk everywhere in their brightly colored cotton garments and cheap plastic sandals. You see many more men out than women, but I saw several women today carrying bananas in buckets on their heads. I also saw several men dressed in traditional red cotton wraps walking with sticks.

My work here is to get a research project up and running on indoor residual spraying (IRS) for malaria prevention. IRS involves spraying the walls inside homes with insecticide once per year. It is almost 100% effective at preventing malaria. 90% of the population has accepted IRS, but we need to find out why 10% refuses to have it—they don’t trust the men who spray to come into their homes, they don’t like moving all of their possessions out of their houses, they think it will kill their children and pets. Who knows? But I here to train the staff and oversee the first couple of interviews they conduct with 60 people in 4 districts.

The other part of my trip involves spending a few days planning an evaluation of a USAID-funded media campaign Johns Hopkins ran called “Fataki”. A fataki is an older man who preys on young girls for sex and serves as their sugar daddy (intergenerational sex). The problem with this (besides the obvious) is that this is why more women than men in the country have HIV. The media campaign ran radio and TV ads, posted billboards, and drew attention to “not letting your daughter get involved with a fataki”. My job is to find out if the campaign actually reduced how people feel about fatakis and if it reduced the incidence of intergenerational sex. I’m very excited about this project!

All day today was spent making preparations for the malaria study and getting to know the JHU Center for Communications Program (CCP) Tanzania staff, who are all very nice. I especially like the two Chiefs of Party, Rob and Bob. I had lunch with them and Bob’s wife at a Thai café and they were a lot of fun the way they poked fun at each other the entire time. And, Bob’s wife is a diver, so I might get to go with the local yacht club this weekend.

Tonight I am eating dinner at my hotel, Alexander’s (although I’m not sure there’s much else in this neighborhood buy big concrete compounds occupied by Ambassadors). It’s a cute bed and breakfast right by the water. My bath water (yes, bath) wasn’t more than lukewarm this morning, so that was a bummer, but otherwise the room isn’t bad. It smells a bit like insecticide though. The top floor has an open air restaurant/lounge. I’m eating parrot fish, which is a bit tough but tasty. The same small man that served me eggs and toast this morning served my dinner. He was cute the way he assured me there would be no eyes, tail, or fins on my fish. There is also a 5-month puppy running around named Hobbit. The owner, Gordon, serves as the receptionist, manager, and concierge.

I’m feeling a bit mellow, probably because I am overly exhausted. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have more energy to explore the area.

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Comments

[anonymous]

First Clue to that 10%
Michelle, since you said your room smelled like insecticide that might be one reason the other 10% that you're studying for your research project, might not want their house sprayed. Also the whole communing with nature may be another factor.