I thought it might be time to blog a bit about who I am actually working with...

Avid blog reader (AKA family and friends): “What Adrienne, no more food and shopping?”
Me: “Don't worry we're just adding a new topic to the mix not ditching the old ones. I promise I won't start taking myself too seriously”

What I've learnt in six weeks of working with Equality for Growth is to be truly in awe of the women we are working with. Women market vendors are some of the busiest people around. These women put in a solid 12 hours of serious work. They are go-getters who have managed to scrape together whatever capital they could find as start-up and are getting by despite low-levels of education, literacy and business knowledge.

When you talked to people here they are really surpised that this is our target group because they can't imagine mobilizing these women to try and fit anything extra into their day. Honestly, I'm shocked too. Any minute these women are away from their stalls is a minute that they may be loosing a customer or a sale which can mean the difference between a successful day and a day where they and their families go hungry.

And yet Equality for Growth has managed to slowly build a steady following of women who understand the benefits of taking to time participate in workshops and attend group meetings. It is not easy. These groups are new and there can be a lot of tension, disagreement and friction. On the other hand, there have also been a number of small but significant triumphs. So my new pledge is to try and share one story a week about the work being done here in and among the stories on life in Dar. So here is my first one:


This is Hadijah Mohamed. She is a widow and mother of five children who makes her daily living as food vendor. Food vending is one of the least profitable but most common businesses for women. On a daily basis she makes 10,000tshs to- 15,000tshs ($7-9) from which she sustains herself and family.

She joined the EfG group and has become the chairperson. She also is part of a savings and loans group run by EfG. After the group built their savings she was able to borrow from her fellow market vendors. With the loan, she bought a motorcycle famously known as “boda boda” as an additional income asset. She now uses it to run a local transportation business. 

Having additional assets also makes it easier for women to access other financial opportunities like micro-loans. From the small step of saving as a community, there are now more options for her in the future.
We all need our places of refuge. In Dar, I take my refuge with white sand and clear blue water....

Getting There

Getting to our favourite beach requires taking a ferry across the bay and you never know who you might run into...

There are always these boats pulled up by the shore. We have no idea if they ever actually go anywhere

People literally race off the boat to get to the buses... we aren't sure why because there seems to be an endless supply.

After our bus ride we always have the option of pursuing the art and craft stands on our way to the beach resort

The path to the resorts is usually pretty quiet and there are tons of flowers all around

Though there are a few hazards along the way...

The Beach

As promised, white sand and clear blue water...

Picture postcard perfect!

And the water is beautiful and shallow for swimming

And there are always many people selling sarongs and scarves.

For reasons we don't fully understand there are also a lot Masai, some of who sell things and some just seem to be chilling out with people.

And once there were cows...

And if the beach gets dull, there is always the pool and the rain dance!

And then the sun goes down and its time to catch a cab ride home.

My final words on the Solidarity Challenge is that it really was a challenge. That sounds like a bit of a funny thing to say but I think its important to acknowledge this. We did have some good times learning to cook from people and sharing food but it was really hard for a number of reasons.

    The Planning
    Each meal had to be planned. We had to think ahead on what we would eat next and hold back food for lunch the next day. There was a detailed budget on how much money we had to spend and what we could afford. Everything that you did involving food required extensive thought. My week became consumed with what we could eat when.

    The Cooking
    Everything had to be made from scratch. I like cooking but most of what we ate required a lot of prep time. There were no quick meals. We ended up eating a lot of raw vegetables at the end of the week because no one wanted to cook any more.

    High Carb Diet
    I found the whole diet could really turn my stomach. There was so much rice and potatoes and other types of starch. Even if I was hungry there were times I'd starting to eat and then I'd just want to put down my plate. I'm never been one to advocate for low carbs but after that week I may be taking a break from them.
The week also got me thinking about what an impact this sort of lifestyle had on people around us. We stopped eating out for the most part so the women who sell us breakfast and the place we eat lunch at suddenly had no business from us. We were just four but if you multiple how many people in the world can only eat what they grow or the few things they can buy or trade for that are still in raw form, the impact on business and growth is huge. No room for selling "value-added" products means a very small economy.

Last Solidarity Day Meal

Breakfast- Tshs 250
Toast and a banana.

Lunch- Tshs 650
Leftover beans on a piece of toast


Supper- Tshs 900
Peas with coconut and rice.

And the our celebratory meal the next morning! No more solidarity challenge!



Last of all I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported us by giving to the challenge or sending us encouraging messages. It was a great help to have that community around support me. In total we raised $1535 dollars for the challenge!

 I also want to give a big thanks to my partner @AliaK for documenting the challenge in Toronto. She is a big part of what makes this blog happen even when she isn't writing and I couldn't do any of it without her!
Day 7 has come and gone and it was over before I knew it. Here's a very quick breakdown of day 7

breakfast:

  • Egg - $0.22

Lunch:

  • Rice - $0.22
  • Yam - $0.11
  • Mixed Vegetables - $0.15

Dinner:

  • Rice - $0.22
  • Yam - $0.11
  • Mixed Vegetables - $0.15

    total for the day: $1.18 ($0.07 under budget!)

 First I would like to thank everybody who donated to the Global Solidarity Challenge. Our team collectively raised $1,535.00 and the total amount raised was $46,028. These funds will be helping VIDEA support human rights programming in Africa. Secondly I would like to thank the Long Distance Neighbour herself Adrienne, for introducing me to the idea of the global solidarity challenge and inviting me to do it along with her.


Post Challenge Thoughts

Variety - They say "variety is the spice of life", but I now know that this phrase should really be "variety is a luxury to those who can afford it". With having access to all the world's foods at my fingertips (for a cost) it was difficult knowing that realistically, food variety is something of a luxury. When living below the poverty line the important thing to worry about is how many calories can you get for your money, not how many days in a row you have to eat rice.

Calories = Energy - A calorie literally is a measure of energy. Eating far fewer calories than my body needed not only lead to me loosing weight very quickly (5 lbs total over 7 days), but also being very tired. By day 4 I found myself less able to concentrate, and wanting to sleep about 10 hours a day. Having to do any significant labour on this type of diet would entirely deplete any energy I had.

Food Security - Throughout the week all I was thinking about was food; what food I could have, couldn't have, really wanted to have etc. It raised my awareness about what it must be like to constantly wonder what your next meal will be, how you will budget for it, or where it is coming from. I obviously was doing the challenge by choice, and not necessity and could never really know what it is like to wonder these things, but never the less those nagging thoughts were very real. For those who are interested you can check out The Global Food Security Index and see how your country fares.

Overall - Ultimately, it was challenging and incredibly rewarding. It wasn't anything like I expected it to be, but turned out to be a total success! Thanks for all the support and hopefully I'll see you again next year!

-Kaila
Here we are on day 6 and all everyone in my house seems to be able to talk about is what they wish they could eat. We went to the market at the end of the day and I had that giddy feeling that occurs when you are really hungry at the supermarket and you want to buy everything (though some what limited by the fact there is only so much you can indulge in at a fresh food market). We picked up a number of things to eat starting on Sunday and here is what I'm most excited about:

  1. Pineapple 
  2. Peanut Butter 
  3. Pasta 
  4. Other Vegetables like broccoli, beets, and also fresh herbs!
  5. Having more than 1 egg
  6. Eating the bacon that's in our fridge
  7. Grilled cheese sandwich
  8. Soda
  9. Chocolate Bar 
  10. Not eating another sweet potatoes for a long time

Breakdown of the Day-  Tshs 1850

Breakfast
I worked out in the morning so I splurged and bought 2 chapati for breakfast for an expensive Tshs 600. I didn't think I was actually that hungry until I started to eat and then I realized I was absolutely starving!

Lunch
We left work early to visit a partner organization so we just ate quickly when we got home. We had some bread and mango for lunch which also cost about Tshs 600.

Dinner
We picked up beans and vegetables at the market and made a sort of vegetable chill.
 


One more day and then we are done. At least tomorrow is Saturday and we can stay home and relax!
Now that the solidarity challenge is just about over, I'm really starting to get into the habit of things. I can tell approximately how much a portion will
cost me and while strolling through a store I can't help but portioning things out into $1.25 a day meal options. 

Unfortunately my Internet has gone down  buy thankfully I have the power of mobile phones. 

Day 6:

Breakfast - banana $0.14
Lunch - 
  • Rice ($0.11)
  • Lentils ($0.08)
  • Garlic ($0.01)
  • Zucchini ($0.15)
  • Yam ($0.11)
Dinner - the same as lunch 

In order to have yams and zucchini and lentils in one meal I needed to cut my rice, lentil and zucchini portions in half. Despite having less food I was completely full for the day! Only one day to go! 
We've been living on a $1.25 a day but our house is in a Muslim neighbourhood and most of the people there aren't eating at all during the day. Though its not entirely the same, I do feel a sort of camaraderie with them when I come home at 5:30 pm and I know they must be at least as starving as I am.

For the last couple nights, we were invited by the group of guards, cleaners and their friends who seem to congregate around our front gate at all hours of the day to join them in breaking their fast (or Kufuturu in Swahili). We have relied on these men to help us navigate the neighbourhood, get taxis and they were some of our first friends in the neighbourhood despite the fact they only speak Swahili. It was really special to be able to sit down and share a meal with them.
This meal usually involves rice, some pasta in a tomato meat sauce, bananas cooked in coconut and other "soft" foods. I want the recipe for bananas and coconut, it was really good!!!

Breakdown of the Day

Breakfast- Tshs 465
That morning we finally ran out of our Mandazi, so I calculated we could actually buy some Vitombua (the rice buns) with our breakfast. Though both are fried, I found them quite heavy and sweet compared to my breakfast the rest of the week.

Lunch- Tshs 530
The night before we wanted to pick up beans for lunch but we were too late getting to the market and the seller was closed. So we made do with sweet potatoes with fresh veg for lunch. I would really like not to eat sweet potatoes for awhile when this is done.

Diner- Tshs 700
We made a sort of egg scramble with veg for diner (which also featured more sweet potatoes boo!). But was at least a switch up from eating rice. I'm feeling very protein deprived after all of this and it was a nice boost.
Only 2 days left. We are starting to plan what we are going to eat on Sunday. The first thing on the list is going to be a full English-style breakfast!