The original idea was to have this go like the 12 days of Christmas. However, I then realized that I am a) not that musically talented and b) it was hard enough thinking up 12 things without trying to make it all rhyme. So lets just say its in the spirit of the 12 days of Christmas.

1 debrief in London with all the interns

2 new dresses sewn (down to the wire but finished them exactly 1 hour before I had to leave for my flight)

3 matching pairs of stockings for Christmas day

4 packs of tea to see me through my next 3 months (check out Tealish)


5 times shoveled snow off my parent's drive way (P.S. no clue how blogger added the snow but its corny cool!)

6 batches of cookies and bars made for Christmas treats


7- estimated number of times we tried to put the Christmas tree up straight before wiring it to the wall


8 hours time difference between Dar es Salaam and Toronto means major jet-lag (like falling asleep at concerts)

9 dishes cooked between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day

10 shopping excursions (maybe more if we count online)

11 magenta highlights added to my hair


12 gifts from Tanzania wrapped up
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 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!
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.
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).
"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!
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 18th 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.