Leaving with a Bang

Our last week in Dar felt a bit like an attempt to test the limits of time and space. Saying good-bye to everyone and visiting all of our favourite places was going to be busy enough. And then for I needed to make arrangement for my return in January. We crammed it all in right up to the final hours, where we celebrating with my Executive Director at her kitchen party.

What's a kitchen party? Its a bridal-shower like you've never seen it before. No games and a few presents in someone's living-room, this is an event almost as big as the wedding itself, involving all of the women in the bride's life. I went to a couple kitchen parties in Zambia but this was my first Tanzanian occasion and it was a lot fancier than I've previously seen. Everyone who attends contributes to support the expenses of the party and to buy the bride gifts.

The entire party was hosted by a matron who lead the party in welcoming the bride to the world of marriage and gave her advice on how to be a good wife. This, of course, was mixed in with a lot of dancing!

In the chaos of organizing ourselves to go home, it was a really special way to spend our last night in Tanzania. Its hard to believe that this six months is coming to an end. Even though I'm coming back, it will be different. I'll miss the great group that we had. Nikupenda sana!

I Think This is the Start of a Beautiful Friendship

I have been struggling about how to write the post for the end of my stay in Dar es Salaam. But it looks like I've managed to escape this task because I'M COMING BACK IN JANUARY!

Last minute, I've managed to pull together more work for another 3 months, so I will be swinging through London and Canada before heading back to Tanzania in January.

The next few months going to be a bit different because I will be coming back on my own but I'm really excited to be able to continue to working with Equality for Growth. Its going to be an busy three months as we work to get the new strategic plan under way.

So I now have a weekend of “see you later,” instead of “good-bye” though I will still be saying tearful good-byes (and this is a literal prediction) to my fellow interns. Next posting will be from the Northern Hemisphere!

Legally Empowered

There is a quote on the bulletin board in our office which says “In the absence of good structures, even good people behave badly.” This quote rings very true in a lot of the work that we do, but there is another piece to this equation that has also become very clear to me- Good structures are only helpful when people are aware of them and know how to navigate them.

This is exactly the challenge women market trader's face in their lives. Bureaucracy is confusing to most of us, but with low levels of education, no access to information and no one to guide you through the process, its a nightmare. Imagine if you had no idea how to get a piece of ID, why you needed a marriage certificate or what a contract was, and nobody else around you had any clue either. This lack of legal knowledge leaves women vulnerable to everything from fake marriages and abuse to property grabbing and business scams.

Which is why Equality for Growth is launching a legal aid program for market women. The project official launched this fall at a big opening ceremony. Over the next year, 25 women and men who work in and around the markets will attend training sessions to become paralegals. These paralegals will be able to help women with basic legal advice, mediate disputes and guide them through the legal system.

What is incredible is that these women and men are all volunteers. There is no funding to pay paralegals for their work and they offer their services for free. Most of them will be juggling their own business at the same time. For most people who work a full-time job, volunteering one afternoon a week can be a struggle. These people will likely see 3-5 clients a week. Its an impressive commitment.

At the first training session, the paralegals to-be biggest worry was that they wouldn't be able to understand enough of law and legal practice to offer advice. This has rapidly changed. The second training session ended just last week and the groups was confident enough to tell the trainers they wanted the last few hours of the training so they could plan as a group to set up their work in the markets. In the course of a couple months they've gone from hesitant to full-throttle.

Its a neat aspect of the project, that as much as the women will benefit from the legal aid, those trained also really benefit from the sense of confidence and community they get from being part of the paralegal team. I think it will be exciting to see, not just the help the new paralegals will provide but also how this experience will also ripple through their own lives and what else it might empower them to do.

Pop-Up Indian: Street Side Dining in Dar

Why is it always at the end of the of the trip you discover the best places to eat or go? My room-mates discovered this great place serving various Indian street foods on their way to the gym last month and its turned out to be a gem.

The place is quite literally a side-walk cafe. Sidewalks in Dar Es Salaam are frequently occupied by street vendors selling everything under the sun as well as the occasionally motorbike or bicycle that finds the road a bit to jammed for their liking. This place is camped outside a small grocery store which is perfect if you want to buy drinks or desert to go with your meal.

The food is all vegetarian, cooked right there before your eyes. There is a banner with a menu but you get what is up for offer that day. The main feature is pani puri and sev puri served up in canteen style metal plates or packed up for take out. Other treats include grilled paneer and onion bhaji.

All in all your meal will probably run you $5 tops and you'll be stuffed full. (Of course we went afterwards for for ice-cream and waffles but that is entirely a personal choice).

Zanzibar: Rain or Shine

"Rain in the forecast? There's always a chance of rain here but it never does. Bright and sunny all the time...don't worry about it!"

This is the sort of thing that you just know when you say it, will likely come back to haunt you. And it did throughout our Zanzibar weekend. Despite the rain, it was a really great trip and it also matched up with my birthday, which made it pretty special. A complete girls vacation, the group here was joined by two other interns visiting from other countries. Here are some of the highlights.

Our Hotel

We stayed in this gem of a hotel called Tembo recommended by our coworkers. Its was so beautiful inside and out.

Zanzibar Doors

This is something that the town in famous for. These beautiful doors now cost thousands of dollars to get made. But all through stone-town you see them in various states of age, beauty and decay.

Winding Alley Ways

Navigating Stonetown takes some work. Windy alley ways are fun to explore, though not the greatest when you are trying to head somewhere specific. And navigating Stonetown in pouring rain... well that requires a far bit of wading through rivers of water.

Beach Views

The photos say it all.

Sitting out the Rain

And rain by the beach isn't so bad when you have swinging beds to retreat to with your book.

Returning to the real world after all of this was a bit painful. And to top of it all, our return coincided with the five month mark of our trip, which was crazy to think about. However, all in all not a shabby way to celebrate being a year older!

Grim Realities and Slivers of Hope

One of the biggest challenges I always have in working in Africa is the fact that, as a women, you are constantly treated as a sexual object. Declarations of “you're beautiful, I love you, come here!” from random strangers are more disturbing than complimentary. Male friendships are almost impossible and more often than not end up in unwelcome advances.

These situations have a way of getting to me because I know its symptomatic of a much larger and deeply disturbing issue. According to national statistics, 44% of women in Tanzania experience sexual and/or physical violence and 30% of girls experience sexual violence before their 18^th birthday. In addition, over 60% of girls think its okay for a husband to beat his wife if she does something such as argue with him, leave the house without telling him, burn food or doesn't properly take care of the household. I have been told flat out that here men don't sexually harassment women, they are just paying a compliment and admiring women.

Its a compliment though that most women would happily pass on. Which is why, EfG launched a small pilot campaign last winter on verbal abuse in the markets. “Mpe Riziki Si Matusi” or “Give Payment not Abuse” was an assertion of women's right to be treated as business owners and not sexual objects. Around 80% of women traders experience verbal and physical sexual harassment on a daily basis, especially from other male traders. It's not uncommon for men to use sexual harassment as a way to discourage women from asking for payment for their goods. Touching, grabbing, constant remarks serve to stop women from asserting themselves. And if the women object? Well this generally leads to greater harassment since you clearly don't know your place.

This campaign focused on working with both men and women market leaders and traders to create an environment where sexual harassment wasn't tolerated. Though the campaign was small, women involved said it continues to provided them with the strength to protest such behaviour and fellow male traders have even stepped up to stop harassment when they see it happen.

Drops of water in a very big bucket. Sometimes working in women's rights there are days you don't know whether to cry or scream in frustration. But this work is not for those who need to see instant results, changes or feel like you as an individual made the difference. Its for those who will celebrate small victories knowing they are part of a long-term, multi-generational battle. In the end you have to simply believe that its a fight worth fighting and these women clearly do.

Snap Shot of Safari

I could do several posts about my safari trip and I have enough animal photos to start my own nature magazine but I'm going to restrain myself and just put up a few things. So here's a snap-shot of my week-long Safari in Northern Tanzania.

Its the people you travel with who make the trip. I'm so glad I had two friends who burst into random songs and ran hilarious animal commentary through out the trip.

Our guide/driver was very knowledge but also went along with all our bits, including the adoption of swahili animal safari names (I was Duma which means cheetah). I wish I could have brought our cook back to Dar with us. Some of the best food I've had in Tanzania!

Did you know that Elephants are careful when drinking from standing water because they are afraid of getting frogs stuck up their trunk. They prefer to dig down to drink so this doesn't happen.

Running giraffes are just about the most graceful thing ever. And I'm pretty sure that legally blonde stole the whole 'bend and snap' thing from giraffes drinking. Also they fight with their necks... which is a bit weird.

The swahili word for zebra literally means striped donkey. They are also the most nervous animal and would get randomly spooked even when the jeep parked and not moving.

Cheetah have it hard. They don't have night vision or retractable claws like other cats. So they can't climb trees or at night.

Hyena's seem pretty harmless. We even had them in our camp a couple nights raiding the kitchen. However, after watching them take down a wildebeest I find them a lot more scary.

All the parks were beautiful, but this view over Ngorongoro crater was my favourite.

And of course there were lions. This was one of three big males that walked right by us as we were heading out of the jeep.

I was actually a bit nervous about doing a 7 day trip. I thought I'd might have gotten bored with animals but it was great to have so much time and be able to really sit and watch the animals just go about their lives. Definitely a truly memorable experience!

How to Celebrate Tanzanian Style

Many of my favourite memories and best stories of living overseas were things that happened because I was lucky in my timing like being able to attend a kitchen party on my second day in Zambia or witnessing the 2011 election. And good timing has struck again! Just the other week my director announced that she is getting married. In addition to being so happy for her,  I'm excited because we get to be part of all the celebrations that are part of getting married in Tanzania. To kick things off we went to Church for her engagement announcement.

Coincidently it was women's week at the church and for the first one hour or so of the service, the women's choir belted it out for the congregation. It was a bit like going to a rock concert at 10am. Everyone was up out of their chairs singing along and there were coordinated dance moves for the different songs. I never knew that going to church would count as a workout but there we were dancing it out with the women's choir.

Finally we got to the big announcement. I had been expecting our director and fiancee to just stand up together an announce their engagement. What was I thinking! The minister called them both up with their family representatives and he announced their engagement along with words of advice on marriage and specifically about our director since this was her church. I don't think the couple to be even spoke to each other at all during the ceremony.

After the minister spoke engagement rings were exchanged (through intermediaries because was again contact between the engaged is not allow) and then the entire congregation descended upon the couple to give them gifts and congratulate them.

We had been asked to take photos which we were happy to do. But we didn't expect to be fighting our way through hoards of people pulling out their camera phones also angling for a good shot. We were up there battling our way through with everyone else (all that experience battling our way on and off the buses here really came in handy). But it was really something to be in the thick of it all and to have a whole community so excited on your behalf, I think our director is really blessed.

What if You Could Help Write the Constitution of Your Country?

Tanzania is in the process of reforming its Constitution. I have to confess I was completely unaware that this was going on prior to coming here. However, its proven to be an important issue and I've found myself on a steep learning curve to bring myself up to speed.

Constitution reform is an important time for the women's movement. The priorities are two-fold; first to ensure that women are full and active participants in the process of constitutional reform and second that through that participation women's rights and issues are included in the Constitution. This is an opportunity to get women's rights enshrined in the highest law of the land and no one wants to let that pass by.

Equality for Growth is part of a coalition of women's organizations who applied to submit recommendations as a special interest group for women. But the goal is not to submit our own thoughts on the Constitution. We want to collect the thoughts and input of the informal women traders we work with. Which is why this week, we held a two-day dialogue session on constitutional reform with women from our market associations and other groups including women with disabilities and women living with HIV/AIDS.

Now, I thought that a workshop on Constitution reform might be a bit of a hard sell. After all, I can't imagine a group of Canadian women taking two days off from their work to debate women's rights in the Constitution. I think its hard for most people to see the impact of the Constitution on their daily lives. And on top of that, we are asking women to leave their businesses and livelihoods for two days to participate in these discussions.

Well, these women's passion and interest would put us all to shame. These women aren't just present. They are engaged, eager to participate and demanding to be heard. Even the facilitator, who has run countless workshops on Constitution reform during the past year is astounded by these women's energy. Over the past two days I have seen women stand up and passionately defend the importance of their participation in constitutional reform and the inclusion of women's rights. One woman stood up and called for all women in Tanzania to refuse to bear children for a year as a protest against the lack of reproductive health rights. She brought the entire group to their feet cheering.

Being at workshops like this one, full of local women cheering and singing about women's rights makes me wonder what would happen if our constitution was up for reform. Would we be as passionate about the process? Would we be up there arguing that women should have 50% participation and that rights to health and childcare should be enshrined at constitutional level? I'm not certain we would. In fact, I very much suspect we would all be in desperate need of an infusion of Tanzanian spirit.

Oh We're Half Way There

We are officially at the half way mark of our internships today. Its incredible especially when I feel like I've just gotten settled. I can't pinpoint exactly when it happened, but just recently I noticed that life here seemed normal and I'm feeling pretty happy and grounded. Looking back, the past three months have been a mix of letting go of habits from home and adapting to the new environment. Here are some of the hurdles I feel like I've gotten over:

Giving up on My Hair (And Other Things Related to My Appearance)

We all want to look our best, especially when making first impressions. This is a bit challenging when your iron seems to be hot enough to burn fabric but useless at getting wrinkles out. Or when your hairdryer shorts-out in the first month despite being plugged into an adaptor. Its also hard to let go of your own personal style in favour of wearing culturally appropriate clothes. But coming to work wearing my hair in a French braid and following the style advice from co-workers (knee length but fitted skirts get a big thumbs up) always results in the biggest compliment of all; “You look so African today!”

Getting Around

There are few things that make me feel more stressed than not knowing where I'm going. On top of that stress, buses here constantly change their routes, most taxi drivers seem only vaguely familiar with the city, and I swear there is a really good video game idea about walking down Dar streets and dodging traffic in all its various forms. Eventually you just have to let go of the panic and go with it. You try to guess what the different money-making strategies are for the buses, work out the point system for the video game and know that the taxi can always ask people for directions once they are in the right neighbourhood.

Social Diversity

When I first got here, all four of us interns stuck together all the time. We only knew the few people we worked with and each other. This led to a lot of together time, which was a little intense for four people who didn't know each other before training. Now we've made friends with our co-workers, neighbours and a rather large group of Canadian ex-pats that would make you wonder if Canada is exporting its youth to Tanzania. Instead of having too much down time, we've switched over to trying to balance our social schedules among all the different demands. This has gone a long way to break-up the group a bit and give everyone a breather from each other (probably a saving grace for our friendships).

I confess I'm a bit surprised to find myself sad to be at this point. After counting down the days during the first few months, all of a sudden I want every week to stretch out and give me more time. I'm beginning to think I might just have found another place in the world where I feel at home.

A Common Story: A Shared Success

Today I want today to share some of the individual success stories from our market women. But as I go through them I find myself in a bit of a dilemma; the stories I really want to share are the ones where market women have overcome what seem like impossible challenges. They are all great stories, but I feel like I'm airing someone's personal pain all over the Internet without them really knowing.

So instead, I'm going to tackle this a bit more generally.

The women we work with are supporting their children and families which means meeting all their basic needs. This means food, housing, water, education and health. Sometimes they are the ones responsible for doing this simply because of low levels of overall household income but often there are other complications.

It seems like at least half the women I talk to have had spouses who walked out on them. A lot of women suffered from abuse or were abandoned for getting pregnant (or in other cases for not getting pregnant). For some of them circumstances were so bad that they had to flee their community and that is why they are here in Dar es Salaam. On top of losing the support of an income earner, these women lost the property they had invested in, were chased from their homes and in some cases had their businesses and livelihoods destroyed by angry or abusive husbands.

And so they started over. They scrapped together capital with savings and loans from friends to start a small business. However they often get stuck because with low capital they can't start a strong and profitable business. In addition, most of these women were never prepared by education (formal or otherwise) to enter business.

EfG helps women save as a group and then loan money to each other to slowly build their business and capital. Women buy “shares” at a set amount every week and then are able to borrow up to 3 times as much as they contribute. So far, there are 23 groups with a total capital of $39,000 among them. Pretty amazing given that most women only bring in around $6 a day and are still supporting their families. Loans provide for everything from business improvements and diversification of activities to buying property and paying school fees.

All the funds are self-raised. As a group the women can share business success and advice among each other. They support each other when they are sick and unable to work. These women are literally able to lift each other up. And at the end of the day they are the cause of their own success. That sort of empowerment can't be given through a workshop, it only comes from being the one to change things for yourself.

It's a Man's Market

All of the markets Equality for Growth (EfG) works in are male dominated but some of them are harder for women to work in than others. Ferry Market is one of them.

Ferry Market is one of the few local markets you'll find in a guidebook. It's the fish market for Dar es Salaam. On one side of the market fisherman dock their boats and sell their catch to wholesalers who then auction everything off. On the other side (pictured above), fish are cleaned and sold to customers. This picture was taken in the late afternoon, which is means this is a view of the market when it's quiet.

 Fish is good money here in Dar, and Ferry is where everyone buys from. Given that buying fish requires a large amount of capital to begin with and because fishing is a "male" activity, almost everything to do with fish at the market is also male dominated.

Now, that doesn't mean women don't work here. A lot of women are hired as labourers to clean and cut fish. They don't however own the business, which means they don't get a say in market affairs.

If you wander away from the fish selling area, you suddenly find yourself  in the only female dominated zone of Ferry. This is the food vendors area. Between all the men working in the market and the government offices located near by, these women's kitchens are very busy.

Other than the fact that their aren't many women here, you might ask what makes Ferry market so hard to work in. It isn't just the numbers. In fact, there are other markets with lower representation of women that aren't as bad or difficult to get involved in. At Ferry it's the attitudes about women working in a male-dominated industry. The market is aggressive with lots of fights breaking out all over the place. Men tend to throw their weight around and refuse to pay women for their work. Verbal abuse and harassment are every day issues, though most women are hesitant to report it.

So how do you address these issues? Well, helping the market leaders understand gender issues is a big part of EfG's strategy. It isn't an easy sell. The first time I went to visit the market I had an hour long conversation with the Market Secretary as he tried to explain to me why they couldn't have more than 2 women representatives on their council because women don't show up for meetings and don't contribute. This wasn't the first time EfG staff has heard these stories from the market leaders.

It is hard to help the men see what appears self-evident- women do double work with responsibilities at home, they are discouraged or even forbidden by family from socializing with men and their concerns may not be the same as male traders. While these talks can seem frustrating and repetitive, I think they are just as important as the work done to empower women. Men are half of the gender equation at the end of the day.

After several long debates and discussions, the market leaders agreed to help women stand for election on the market committees and the goal line was shifted to have 6 out of 18 representatives be women. Attitudes change slowly, but inch by inch its possible to gain ground. And I for one believe in celebrating every inched gained. If the election can go as planned it will triple women's representation. And all it took was being willing to engage in an ongoing dialogue around the issues and challenges. It can be the simplest things that make all the difference.