Missive #5: Mwenzi wa Kumi

November 2nd, 2009

Mambo, Bonjour, and Hello!

Ah, October! The leaves are changing into their splendid funerary attire and spiralling gracefully down to carpet the side-walks. To the Tanzanian’s horror the temperature is falling with the leaves, and we Canadians are very cruelly informing them that they ain’t seen nothing yet.
Our first Community Activity Day (CAD) was held on the Otanabee River as we paddled around in canoes and kayaks kindly lent to us for free by a local rental place. Tegemeo enthusiastically took to the river in his kayak, and capsized within the first five minutes. We had not set off yet, so we were able to get him and his boat safely back to the dock and the remembrance of the event still brings giggles to some of us. Unfortunately, seeing Tegemeo’s experience, a few of the Tanzanians decided that they were not interested in risking a swim in the Otanabee and stayed ashore. The rest of us paddled upstream to the Hunter St. Bridge, in the shelter of the islands on the way up and zooming along with the current on the way back. I foolishly paddled under a low-hanging tree and and shipped a kayak-load of spiders, some of which fell down the back of my shirt. We continued back down the river to Little Lake where we rafted up and lay talking in our boats before returning to the Silver Bean Café for generous complementary hot drinks.
Our next Educational Activity Day (EAD) was held at the Canadian Canoe Museum where we built kayaks, baked bannock bread, and learned about Canadian history as it was effected by the canoe. That evening Scott, Colin, Frank, Jean-Phillipe and I got together for an epic game of Risk which left Colin the emperor of the world and kept the rest of us talking about it for days after, much to the rest of the group’s exasperation. For our next CAD we visited Green-Up Peterborough, an inspiringly pro-active environmental agency focused on helping Peterborough residents save money and the environment.
I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading, having all too many books on the go: “Heaven’s Mirror”, “Schools and Masters of Fencing”, “The Alchemist”, “The Skystone”, and “A Short History of Nearly Everything”. By the time that Thanksgiving rolled around, “A Short History of Nearly Everything” had taught more about science than twelve consecutive years of curriculum study in the subject, including that there are many things to be thankful for such as the fact that our planet has a liquid outer core which prevents solar radiation from tearing our DNA to shreds. And, as if that weren’t enough to be happy about, Mom and Dad drove down from Ottawa for the weekend. They stayed at a friendly B&B and spent a lot of time with Jackson and I, and Wendy and Randy with whom they got along very well. Jackson and I showed them around town, and went with them to the lift locks and the petroglyphs provincial park. The petroglyphs were amazing to see, images from the undeciphered dreams of native shamans between 1100 and 900 years ago. On Thanksgiving evening we had 11 people and 5 cultures around the dinner table: Randy (Ojibwa), Wendy, her son Thomas, Mom, Dad, myself (Canadians of British Isles decent), Lam, Jiang (eastern China), Jackson, Suzan (Tanzania), and Wendy’s friends Pepe and Renee (Peru). We had a great traditional turkey dinner and pumpkin-pie dessert and enjoyed eachother’s company. The next day Mom and Dad headed back home to Ottawa.
Jackson and my EAD group was the next in line. We focused ours on how human community effects the wildlife community, and went to the Peterborough zoo to see the bobcat, camels, otters, llamas, monkeys (not as big as the ones in Chamazi, according to the Tanzanians), wallabies, emus, a cougar, reindeer, yak, meerkats, boa constrictors, Burmese pythons, and other animals. We then went to Trent for presentations, then to the Camp Kawartha Environment Centre for a tour and a presentation by Jackson and I about eco-villages.
The following Friday was a busy one. The group met at the Trinity United Church at 6:30 am to attend and volunteer at a Person’s Day breakfast, commemorating the anniversary of women achieving the right to vote in Canada. We listened to the many moving speeches by many people, including Renee, our Peruvian friend from Thanksgiving. Many people were interested in CWY and came over to our table to talk with us. After the delicious breakfast we helped to clean up, then walked home to pack for our mid-term camp. In the afternoon we met again at the Lion’s Hall where we were to volunteer at a fundraising dinner for the Jamaican Self-Help organization. When we arrived we were faced with something of a crisis – all of the food that had been ordered to feed the 130-odd paid guests had been prepared that morning and was now cold, and we had only very limited access to the Lion Club’s oven. Worried but undeterred, we set about going to nearby church kitchens to see if we could use one, which we unfortunately could not. Julie took the samosas to her apartment to heat them in her oven, and we managed to heat most of the other things that required it with the Lion’s stove. Apart from that we also set up tables, banners, a silent auction, and the food and beverage serving tables. The Jamaican organization was very greatful to us, as the only other volunteer they had was one girl who was quite drunk at the time. After all of the patrons had arrived and been served and seated, we were able to take a break and have some dinner ourselves, which proved to be very good. No sooner had we finished than the host families who had volunteered to drive us out to Camp Kawartha for the mid-term camp arrived and we headed off.
Although we couldn’t tell until the next morning, the camp was beautifully located on a luminously maple-graced lake shore and had a teepee, a pioneer-style log cabin, and several straw-bale buildings. To top it all off it was the beginning of a very welcome Indian Summer, and we could not have asked for nicer weather for the duration of our stay. We went to claim our beds at the dormitories, and we boys very cruelly pulled an extra bed into the back room, leaving our renound snorer alone and unimpressed in the front room. We ended the evening with hot chocolate and a game of giant chess between Jean-Phillipe and I. The next day we did a little soul-searching regarding our counterpart, host-family, group, work placement, and program relationships. After that we did some team-building and self-developing activities on the climbing wall and high-ropes. On the climbing wall I expected to make it to the third section and made it my goal to get to the fourth, but as it was I ended up going to the very top and ringing the bell. On the high-ropes course we were expected to climb a telephone-pole with staples, and stand on a small platform on the top with our counterpart and another pair. Once there, we had the option of doing a “trust lean”, holding wrists and leaning out from eachother at the top. I had no trouble getting to the top, but took some coaxing to actually stand on the platform which involved hanging onto JP’s hand and pulling myself up. JP was all gung-ho to try a trust lean, but Norbert and I shook our heads frantically and said “No, JP!” When (safely back on terra firma) I contemplated the experience, I realized that I had not been afraid of the hight, of falling, or anything rational at all (we had all had belay teams holding us up), I had merely been afraid of being afraid, of the instinctive fear that my body would have insisted upon had I looked down and shown it how far it was from its accustomed element. This realization gave me the feeling that there was very little that I had reason to be afraid of, because fear is not rational and, even when it is, it does not aid the situation. Although not a by-all and end-all fan of reason, I realized that fear is almost entirely counterable by it if one can hold on to it in the face of fear. I was ultimately only afraid because I had felt that I should be.
After the climbing some of us went to play hockey and a few others went for a hike. The Tanzanians who tried hockey for the first time loved it, and Jackson shot some good goals. That night we played the piano, the Hammond B-3 organ, and another game of Risk, all of which Sean won on no uncertain terms as we drank hot chocolate and ate apple pie. On our final day at the camp we played a team-building game, tested ourselves on how well we knew the group, discussed environmental issues, and had a Kiswahili class. We then packed our stuff, cleaned up the spaces that we had used, and had a group picture taken in the golden autumn leaves by the lake.
We rode a school bus to a lovely log cabin on a natural piece of land for a presentation about Amnesty International. Our Amnesty member hosts we extremely hospitable and kind, and led us on a beautiful hike through the forest to a series of lakes. Some of the group went canoeing, and the rest of us hiked further. We came across a small lake that was covered in a thin layer of ice. I pointed this out to the Tanzanians who didn’t understand and looked at me as though I was crazy until I threw a pebble out which bounced musically along the surface. The reaction was one of amazement, and they made sport of throwing stones of increasing size out onto the ice until we had to tell them to stop: for the health of the lake and the road. After the refreshing hike we returned to the cabin for a phenomenal multi-lesagnia dinner, followed by an equally amazing desert. Having eaten our fill, and feeling very much obliged to our generous hosts, we all introduced ourselves and our involvement in CWY and were shown a promotional video about Amnesty International. The stories that we heard were humbling and moving. We finished with a short discussion and question period, then took the bus back to Peterborough and returned to our host-homes. One counter-part pair was involved in a car accident on the way home that night, but fortunately no one was hurt.
The very next day Norbert and I went back to Camp Kawartha again for work to help Jen, our supervisor, to make wooden signs to recognize the donors who had helped with the environment centre. We spent the morning routering, sawing, sanding, and varnishing, then, after a lunch of our leftover weekend dinners, we went canoeing out on the windy lake. What a way to end a day of work!
The next day we met at the Stedler House for silk-screening and book-art workshops, as training for a Free Market that we would be volunteering for at Trent. The idea of the Free Market is that one person’s garbage is another’s treasure, so people drop off stuff that they don’t want and pick up stuff that they do and are not expected to pay in any way. This is obviously good, socially speaking, but is also beneficial in terms of the environment and human rights as less waste is going to landfills, less resources need to be extracted from the earth, and less sweat-shop labour is required. Where the art comes in is that, even if something isn’t as good as new, it can still be given new life and great meaning by personalizing it. At Trent we taught silk-screening workshops, painted and did lettering on a big donation bin, set up wares from the free market, and gave away “Green Boxes” of products to help insulate and weather-proof housing.
On Saturday our entire team came together at Sean and Suzan’s for a big road hockey tournament, complete with banners, noise makers, the “Kombe Kup”, and, to quote Sean’s promotion, “the steamiest of cocoas”. We had a blast, playing for hours and calling “Gari!” to clear the road whenever a car approached. After the tournament our team won the “Kombe Kup” by one point. Scott was nominated as the “most valuable player,” Norbert as the “most improved”, and Deborah as the “most enthusiastic”. After dinner we all went to Sarah and MJ’s place to carve jack-’o-lanterns and roast the pumpkin seeds.
On Sunday the Tanzanians went to Hoyse’s church and spent the day with the minister and his family touring Peterborough and going canoeing, some of the Canadians went swimming at a wellness centre, others went apple-picking at an orchard, and I was anticipating going to an archery practice with a local SCA branch. My body, however, had decided that I had made it do too much over the past few days and that it was going to be sick. Wendy was very nurturing and miraculously cured me with sympathy, a light lunch, a long conversation, and a naturopathic tea which left me feeling fine by the afternoon.
After work on Wednesday our team took a bus to Fleming College for a lecture that Steven Lewis was giving concerning sustainability. He came over before the Ojibwa drummers opened the event, and chatted with Sarah and Suzan (who had her headphones in). He was a very good speaker, charismatic and vehement, and could be very funny at will. He painted the reality of climate change as it related to all fronts, from social to medical, political, scientific, ethnographic, demographic, agricultural, discrimination and more, as it applied to all areas of the world. He poured praise on individuals who took efforts to reduce their individual environmental impact, but stressed that it was simply not enough and that governments and corporations need to be severely pressured. When one Sierra Club member in the audience voiced his frustrations about the lack of action after a massive protest that they had held on Parliament Hill on the weekend, Mr. Lewis looked at his watch and said, “excuse me: today is Wednesday...” but told the questioner to keep at it and to send him an email if he failed to get a response after another 60 or 70 attempts. After he had finished the speech, in which he had acknowledged our CWY team’s presence, he was given a long standing ovation after which he asked for some water. Someone came down with a plastic bottle of water, which he humorously refused: “Come on... Do you really expect me to accept that, after all that I’ve been saying here?” We all went down and chatted with him, and Colin gave him a giant cookie that Andrea had baked for him and a letter from Micheal reminding him of his promise to visit for lunch sometime. We had our pictures taken with him and he told us that he was going to Dar es Salaam in December, at the same time as us.
The following day we all volunteered at the United Way Soupfest, a big delicious fundraiser at the Trinity United Church. We decorated, served, bussed, washed dishes, cleaned up, and enjoyed a vast variety of amazing soups from many local restaurants. I was surprised how many people that I recognized there, many of whom I could call by name, and it felt good to think that I had come to know the community to that extent. To sober the enjoyment of the event, one of the other volunteers said some discriminatory things to JP and called him a “Frenchie”, which hurt his feelings. He had the applaudable courage, however, to confront the man later and told him to respect Quebec.
On Halloween our group met at the parking lot of the Price choppers grocery store along with many other youth, mainly from Trent. We were gathered to go “Trick-or-Eating”: to go from house to house, in costume, asking not for candy but for food to be donated to the Kawartha Food Exchange. We were all very surprised by eachother’s costumes, some of which were quite impressive. To the team’s general amusement, Jackson and I dressed up as eachother and wore very convincing masks made from enlarged photographs glued to cardboard. It was rather disconcerting to everyone, including ourselves! We trick-or-eated for a couple of hours, after which our group of five had gathered an entire shopping cart of food. The whole team then went to Colin and Tegemeo’s place for a Halloween party that there host parent were putting on. There were very many people crammed into the little house, and none were alowed in without a costume. We partook in apple-bobbing, dancing, and a costume contest. The costume contest finalists included Max the King of the Wild Things, a unicorn, and Andrea from our team who was dressed all in black as an iPod commercial. The competition was palpable, and the judges who could not decide by costume had to judge by their dancing skills, and the unicorn just barely squeezed by for his break-dancing capabilities. The Tanzanians, who’d never tried it before, were very gung-ho about the apple bobbing, and Jackson dove in enthusiastically with his whole head and shoulders. We were up very late, but thanks to the time change it was only 1:23 am by the time we got home and went to bed.
I realized, too late, that there were some important things that I neglected to mention about our Tanzanian counterparts in my last Missive. Firstly, they are all members of UVIKIUTA, a Tanzanian grass-roots organization focused on young people. Through it, young people from all over the country are involved with volunteer work camps in other parts of Tanzania, often in collaboration with foreign youth groups. The founding members, including our project supervisor Hoyse, were youth fed up with their restricted lives in the city who moved out of Dar es Salaam and founded a community near Chamazi, where our exchange will be. There they created an eco-village and raised money by offering services, selling flowers that they grew and milk and meat from cattle that they raised. The project has flourished, despite the difficult early days when they lacked enough food and electricity when they were considered to be crazy for their efforts.
Jackson and some of the other Tanzanians had a similarly difficult beginning to this exchange. While we Canadians had to raise $2500, attend conferences, and take questionnaires and interviews, the UVIKIUTA members were going through a gruelling two-week selection camp. The two weeks were without rest: getting up early from bed, having a limited time to shower in limited showers, being on time for everything, writing essays, presenting, exercising, physical labour, surprise schedule changes (sometimes in the middle of the night) and a zero-tolerance on broken rules. The competition was high as there were many people running. Jackson told me that he was very surprised to be selected, as he had been one of the youngest contestants with poorer English, but selected he was. After that he had to convince his disgruntled family, who believed that he should be going strait to university, that his choice was right: “God choose that I musti to go to the Canada”, he would say, “why that? I don’t know why God choose that, but musti to do what God choose. Yes.” Many of the Tanzanians came to Canada hoping find access to post-secondary education and scholarships. Jackson, who’s father had had an accident which prevented him from continuing his job, was funded for secondary school by his aunt in Arusha, and he is now under pressure from his mother to find scholarships to fund his further education. Norbert has related to me his dislike of the style of university education in his home country, saying that there is only theory and no field work, and that a Tanzanian education is not as marketable as a Canadian one. He has been very active in organizing information and lectures about Canadian education, scholarships and programs for international students for his team mates.
Whew! I can’t believe that there is just over a month left of this half of the exchange! It’s as though I woke up one day and realized that two months had simply disappeared. They have been rewarding though, and I know that the month to come will be quite a busy one... Stay tuned for that!
Wewe rafiki,


Bradley Clements
Peterborough, Ontario

P.S: Thanks so much to those of you who have sent me letters and emails in the past while – it’s wonderful to hear from you all!